The Telecommunications and Analysis Division of the FCC’s International Bureau released the first U.S. International Circuit Capacity Report (Report) under Section 43.62 of the Commission’s rules on January 12, 2016. The Report presents circuit capacity data submitted by U.S. facilities-based common carriers, non-common carrier satellite operators, cable landing licensees, and U.S. international carriers that owned or leased capacity on a submarine cable between the United States and any foreign point, as of December 31, 2014.
The Report shows that the new Section 43.62 reporting requirements have substantially improved the Commission’s data collection efforts from prior years. Importantly, 94.6% of the total available capacity on all U.S. international submarine cables is now captured, compared to 7.1% collected under the previous reporting requirements.
Notable highlights from the Report:
- Submarine cable capacity has grown around 36% per year for 2007-2014 and is expected to grow around 29% for 2014-2016.
- The top eight foreign landing points (in descending order) for U.S. international submarine cables are Colombia, Japan, the United Kingdom, Panama, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, and Australia.
- Of the Americas, Atlantic, and Pacific regions, the Atlantic region has the largest fraction of non-activated capacity.