The FCC International Bureau today released its annual year-end circuit status report for U.S. facilities-based international carriers. The year-end 2000 report reflects steady growth in use of U.S. international-facilities for international calls and private line services from the United States. The report is based on information provided by U.S. international facility-based carriers and covers U.S. undersea cables, satellites, and terrestrial links. It identifies the activated (inservice) and idle (available but not in-service) circuits for each international point as of December 31, 2000. The report, which is valuable for Commission regulatory purposes as well as for public use, also includes data from 1997 to 1999 for all international points by transmission facilities.
Showing steady growth since 1999, the 2000 report indicates that the number of activated 64 Kbps equivalent circuits at year-end 2000 was 2,178,926, which is a 121% increase from 1999’s revised figure, 987,481. The rate of growth of activated 64 Kbps circuits reached a new high for a single year’s growth. Of the total circuits used, by service type, International Message Telephone Service (IMTS) accounted for 21%; International Private Line Services accounted for 74%; and the remaining 5% of total circuits were used for other data services and video (outside of traditional private line services).
By transmission type, of the total activated circuits, undersea cables increased from 60% in 1999 to 68% in 2000; terrestrial links decreased from 33% in 1999 to 26% in 2000; and satellites, decreased slightly from 7% in 1999 to 6% in 2000. The top 30 destinations among all international routes account for 97% of the total activated circuits. The percentage of idle circuits as compared to the total circuit capacity (active and idle) increased from 25% in 1999 to 44% in 2000.