What it does The Second Report and Order creates a blanket cable landing license for current and future SLTE owners and operators that are not already licensed and do not fall within specified presumptive disqualifications. It imposes routine conditions, including compliance, annual circuit-capacity reporting, and cybersecurity and physical-security risk-management plans. The rules prohibit covered or foreign-adversary-controlled principal equipment and certain service providers, extend restrictions on IRU and capacity-leasing arrangements involving Covered List entities, and require ownership, foreign-adversary, Covered List, location, renewal, and retirement notifications. Applications meeting ten national-security standards are presumptively exempt from referral to Executive Branch agencies. The accompanying Second Further Notice seeks comment on additional routine conditions.

Who it affects The rules apply to cable landing licensees, SLTE owners and operators, customers and downstream users of capacity, and providers involved in submarine cable operations. Entities subject to the foreign-adversary or character presumptive disqualifying conditions are excluded from the blanket license for new SLTE operations.

Why it matters The FCC treats SLTE as a core component that connects submarine fibers to terrestrial networks and can control traffic, capacity, or spectrum. The framework closes what the Commission describes as an oversight gap while attempting to accelerate trusted submarine-cable deployment and protect critical communications infrastructure.

Key dates and numbers

• Adopted June 25, 2026; released June 30, 2026 (FCC 26-42).
• Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication; replies are due 60 days after publication.
• The FCC received 12 comments, 7 replies, and 22 ex partes in the preceding proceeding.
• The ten national-security standards support presumptive exemption from Executive Branch referral.