The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector has no objections to Google's proposed Taihai submarine cable system as long as it meets various national security commitments, NTIA told the FCC Wednesday. Taihai is a 7,000-km line to run between the Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan and the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The committee is also called Team Telecom.

The FCC posted on Thursday the drafts for all the items teed up for votes at the commission’s Aug. 7 open meeting. Most have a deregulatory bent.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Wednesday unveiled a full agenda for the Aug. 7 open meeting, leading off with proposed changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Also included are draft orders that Carr said were aimed at streamlining submarine cable licensing and satellite and earth station licensing. As will be true for the July meeting, cutting regulation will be a priority in August (see 2507030049).

Approval of SES' buying Intelsat should be conditioned on the new combined company complying with a variety of national security directives, NTIA petitioned the FCC on Monday (docket 24-267). The petition was on behalf of the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, or Team Telecom. The proposed conditions include the new company making available, when requested, network-management information or a list of customers that have hosted payloads on U.S. satellites or are using U.S.-located earth stations to connect with SES satellites. The $3.1 billion deal was announced in April 2024 (see 2404300048).

The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector signed off on part of a deal from last year in which T-Mobile will invest $4.9 billion in a joint venture with investment firm KKR to buy fiber-based provider Metronet (see 2407240020). The committee, more widely known as Team Telecom, approved, with conditions, the transfer of international Section 214 authority from Metronet Holdings to MetroNet Systems, said a filing Thursday in docket 24-244.

NTIA joined the submarine cable industry in voicing concerns about parts of the FCC's proposed rewrite of its subsea cable rules. In docket 24-523 reply comments this week, NTIA, the subsea cable industry and allies called instead for using the proceeding to streamline existing rules. FCC Commissioners adopted the subsea cable NPRM unanimously in November (see 2411210006). Initial comments on the NPRM saw pushback from industry (see 2504150002).

The private sector can't take all the responsibility for safeguarding against and responding to major cybersecurity events like the Salt Typhoon data hack of communications networks, House Communications and Technology Subcommittee members heard Wednesday. Putting Salt Typhoon blame solely on industry ignores the government's failure to share information with the private sector, Technology Industry Association CEO David Stehlin said during the roughly 2.5-hour hearing about protecting communications infrastructure. The session also saw communications and national security experts lay out a variety of recommendations for improving U.S. communications network security, from uniform ways to report cyber incidents to actually punishing nations that tamper with U.S. subsea cables.

The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector notified the FCC on Thursday that T-Mobile and UScellular “provided complete responses” to the committee’s initial questions on T-Mobile’s proposed acquisition of wireless assets from the smaller carrier (see 2405280047). The committee, which is informally known as Team Telecom, “shall complete its initial review of the Applications before the end of the 120-day initial review period, which begins on the date of this letter,” said a filing in docket 24-286. “The Commission will be notified promptly in the event of an extension of the 120-day initial review period or the need arises to conduct a 90-day secondary assessment.”

Facing what it sees as an onerous and lengthy process of submarine cable system licensing and permitting, the submarine cable industry is hoping the new White House administration offers a path to streamlining and speedier turnarounds. The FCC approval process used to be roughly 14 months, but now it sometimes reaches two years, said Sarah McComb, Amazon Web Services (AWS) principal business developer overseeing its undersea cable development activity in the Pacific. "That's just too long," she told an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar Wednesday.

The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector, also known as Team Telecom, notified the FCC this week that it's reviewing Bell Canada's proposed acquisition of Ziply Fiber (see 2412090045). The deal is straightforward, and “there is no significant risk to the transaction being approved,” New Street's Blair Levin said Thursday. But, he added, approval may get caught up in President Donald Trump’s pursuit of tariffs.