By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it will vote next month to review its oversight of the global network of undersea communications cables that handle nearly all of the world’s Internet traffic and national security issues.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said, “Over the past two decades, the technological, economic, and security challenges related to these systems have changed significantly, but the FCC’s oversight has not. »

Rosenworcel added that the FCC will vote on November 21 to undertake the first comprehensive and major revision of its rules on submarine cables since 2001. The FCC plans to update its rules to address the national security impacts of cables under -seafarers who handle more than 95% of international flows. Internet traffic.

Last week, a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators led by Republican Todd Young and Democrat Chris Murphy called on President Joe Biden’s administration to undertake “a review of existing vulnerabilities in the world’s submarine cable infrastructure, including the threat of sabotage by Russia as well as the People’s Republic of China’s growing role in laying and repairing cables.

The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in managing network traffic and the potential for espionage.

More than 400 undersea cables form the backbone of the Internet and carry more than 99% of the world’s data traffic.

The senators said ensuring the security of Internet traffic must be a national priority and raised a number of questions, including what is the administration’s “overall strategy for ensuring the security of America’s undersea infrastructure and promoting the security of that of our allies and partners?

Reuters reported last year that the State Department and its partners helped prevent China from obtaining new submarine contracts in foreign locations of strategic interest to the United States, while others American agencies had blocked any cable from directly connecting the American territory to mainland China or Hong Kong due to Chinese espionage. concerns.

Since 2020, U.S. regulators have been instrumental in canceling four cables whose backers wanted to connect the United States to Hong Kong.

In April, the FCC ordered the U.S. units of China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile to shut down their high-speed Internet operations in the United States.

In June, the FCC advanced a proposal to strengthen the security of information transmitted over the Internet after government agencies said a Chinese carrier misrouted traffic.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Nick Zieminski)