Maintenance in progress

the fcc voted to require licenses for operators of submarine line terminal equipment — the physical shore-side hardware where undersea cables connect to land networks — and moved to restrict chinese company participation in systems carrying roughly 99% of international internet traffic. the rule creates a formal regulatory gate over the physical endpoints of the global internet backbone, the first of its kind in u.s. communications law. combined with the hormuz blockade, both physical global commons — sea lanes and subsea cable routes — are under simultaneous institutional and kinetic pressure this cycle.

u.s. regulatory and telecommunications press