Report No. IN 99-4 February 2, 1999 INTERNATIONAL BUREAU RELEASES REPORT ON 1997 CIRCUIT STATUS FOR U.S. FACILITIES-BASED INTERNATIONAL CARRIERS The International Bureau today released the 1997 year-end circuit status report. The report covers U.S. international facilities (undersea cables, satellites, and terrestrial links) and identifies the activated (in-service) and idle circuits for each international point as of December 31, 1997. The report also includes data for 1995 and 1996 for all international points by transmission facilities. The number of activated 64 Kbps equivalent circuits at year-end 1997 was 378,083, a 48% increase from 1996. By service type, International Message Telephone Services (IMTS) accounted for 48% of the total circuits used; International Private Line Services accounted for 49%; and the remaining 3% of total circuits were used for Video and Other Miscellaneous Services. The 1997 data reflect a continued shift from IMTS to private line services among carriers' active capacity. In 1997, the amount of private line circuits exceeded the amount of IMTS circuits for the first time. By transmission type, the undersea cables account for 41% of total activated circuits in 1997. Terrestrial links account for 49%. Satellites account for 10% of the total activated capacity in 1997. The top 30 destinations among all international routes account for 90% of the total activated circuits at year-end 1997. The percentage of idle circuits as the overall total circuit capacity decreased from 23% in 1996 to 20% in 1997. An additional table on total available trans-oceanic fiber optic cable capacity over time is provided for further reference. The report is available for reference in the International Bureau Reference Room, Room 102, 2000 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. Copies also may be obtained from the Commission's contractor for public service records duplication: ITS, Inc., 1231 20th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036, (202) 857-3800. This report can be downloaded from the International Bureau home page (htp://www.fcc.gov/ib/td) on the World Wide Web. Inquires and submissions should be directed to Cathy Hsu, Telecommunications Division, International Bureau, at (202) 418- 2114. -- FCC -- INTERNATIONAL BUREAU REPORT 1997 Section 43.82 Circuit Status Data February 2, 1999 Cathy Hsu Telecommunications Division 1997 Section 43.82 Circuit Status Data Introduction This report contains information on U.S. international facilities-based carriers' circuits as of year-end 1997, submitted to the Federal Communications Commission by U.S. carriers pursuant to Section 43.82 of the Commission's rules. In addition, this report compiles data from the 1995 and 1996 reports. Section 43.82 directs facilities-based carriers to file an international circuit status report by March 31 each year for circuits used to provide international services as of December 31 of the preceding year. The detailed filing requirements are set forth in the Manual for Filing Section 43.82 Circuit Status Data that can be found on the International Bureau's Web site at "http://www.fcc.gov/ib/td/pf/csmanual/html". The information is compiled in an aggregated form designed to be most useful to current industry members, potential new entrants, and the Commission. In addition, this annual circuit status report will serve as a database for determining and monitoring the payments that the Commission is required to collect (i.e., annual regulatory fees on active equivalent 64 Kbps international circuits). Reporting Requirements All U.S. international facilities-based international carriers are required to file circuit status information, reflecting both activated (in-service) and idle capacity. Although units of circuit capacity have increased to E-1 and STM-1 levels, all services are reported in 64 Kbps equivalent circuits to meet the Commission's minimum accountable unit for fee collection requirement. In the Commission's manual on filing circuit status reports, we define international facilities-based circuits as "international circuits in which a carrier has an ownership interest which includes outright ownership, indefeasible right of use (IRU) interests, or leasehold interest in bare capacity in an international facility, regardless of whether the underlying facility is a common or non-common carrier submarine cable or an INTELSAT or other satellite system." This definition is consistent with the Commission's Order on Market Entry and Regulation of Foreign-affiliated Entities, 11 FCC Rcd 3873 (1995). This report includes both circuits from U.S. domestic points to foreign points and circuits from U.S. points to offshore U.S. points. U.S. domestic points are the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Foreign points include ships operating in international waters as well as foreign destinations. Offshore U.S. points include U.S. territories such as American Samoa, Guam, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, Navassa Island, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palmyra Atoll, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Wake Island. United States and foreign points are identified in the Common Carrier Bureau Industry Analysis Division report titled International Points used for FCC Reporting Purposes (International Points), released April 1, 1994. Carriers are required to file separate data for each U.S. point that they serve. Alaska and Hawaii are considered distinct U.S. points for this purpose. The International Points Report uses the following regional codes: Region Code Western Europe 1 Africa 2 Middle East 3 Caribbean 4 North and Central America 5 South America 6 Asia 7 Oceania 8 Eastern Europe 9 International Water Area 10 The reporting services are: International Message Telephone Service (IMTS) (switched voice), International Private Line Service (IPLS) (including voice and data) and Miscellaneous or Other International Services (primarily video). Data Presentation Table 1 lists 93 carriers that filed circuit status reports, a 43% increase from 1996's 65 filing entities. Among filings, the four largest carriers - AT&T, MCI Communications Corporation, Sprint Communications Company L.P., and WorldCom, Inc. - have requested confidentiality under the Freedom of Information Act. There are a few smaller carriers that also filed for confidentiality. As denoted in Table 1, these carriers' reports are not available to the public. Our aggregated data as listed in this report, however, reflect all carriers' information, including carriers asking for confidential treatment. For each transmission facility, we have presented the three years of available data (1995, 1996, and 1997). Table 2 presents undersea cable circuit status; Table 3, Satellite; Table 4, Terrestrial; and Table 5, the combined transmission circuits. All tables include information by service type for 1995, 1996, and 1997 data. In Table 2, the undersea cable circuits account for 41% of the overall active transmission capacity in 1997, a decrease of 2% from 1996. For Table 3, the international satellite circuits account for 10% of overall transmission capacity, compared to 11% in 1996. In Table 4, the terrestrial links account for 49% of 1997 active circuit capacity, an increase of 3% from 1996. Table 5 combines all three transmission media. A service mix by region from 1995 to 1997 is calculated in the last page of Table 5. For 1995, the IMTS circuits accounted for 80% of the total active capacity; for 1996, the ratio dropped to 57%, for 1997, 48% of the overall total. The data verify the trend of heavy use of private line capacity. There are four regions - Western Europe, North and Central America, Asia, and Other (International water area) that the number of activated circuits in private line services have exceeded the number of IMTS circuits. In 1996, only Western Europe and Other (International water area) regions had more private line circuits than IMTS circuits. The growth rate of private line circuits was 79% from 1996 to 1997 as compared with an increase of 270% from 1995 to 1996. Table 6 lists the top 30 destinations that account for 90% of the total U.S. activated circuits at year-end 1997. Again, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany are the top five countries. Previous years' top 30 ranking orders are also presented in the table for comparison. Malaysia, with an overall capacity growth rate of 199% in 1997, replaced the U.S. Virgin Islands on the list for the top 30 destinations. Malaysia, Spain, and Sweden had the highest private line services growth among the top 30 destinations. About half of the top 30 destinations experienced heavier capacity use on private lines than on IMTS in 1997. The ratio of IMTS to private line services has decreased from 4.7 in 1995, to 1.4 in 1996, and to 0.98 in 1997. The ratio of IMTS to private line services for the top 30 destinations, as well as to each region, are also listed in Table 6. Supplementary Data Table 7 lists all operational trans-ocean and Americas fiber optic cables in 64 Kbps units, and planned new cables before the Commission (both granted and pending cable applications) over time, from 1988 to 2001. In addition to providing the supplementary data for major Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific cable capacity, the 1997 report includes the Americas region which consists of Caribbean, North, Central, and South America regions' cable capacity in Table 7. The combined cable capacity (activated and idle circuits) for the Trans-Atlantic region is 141,256 64 Kbps circuits (Regions 1, 2, 3 and 9); this accounts for 45.3% of the total available fiber optic cable capacity (as of December 31, 1997). For the Americas region (Regions 4, 5 and 6), the U.S. reported cable capacity accounts for 35% of the total available fiber optic cable capacity. For the Trans-Pacific region, the reported cable capacity accounts for 44% of the total available fiber optic cable capacity, as of December 31, 1997. We have also listed future cables in Table 7 for further reference.