Our latest Global Trends benchmark analyses policies and regulations of relevance to international submarine cables used for electronic communications in 17 jurisdictions around the world.

Amongst the main findings, this benchmark shows that:
 

• Authorisation requirements. Only five of the surveyed jurisdictions require a specific licence by a telecoms authority to land a submarine cable and operate a cable landing station (CLS). Most jurisdictions follow a general telecoms licensing or authorisation regime. Submarine cable deployment often involves numerous approvals outside the telecoms sector. Obtaining all required licences, permits and clearances from various authorities can take up to two years . Examples of recent developments include Brazil consulting on new submarine cable licensing timeframes, India introducing a new authorisation framework, and Kenya restructuring its licensing regime.
• Security and resilience. In 12 surveyed jurisdictions, submarine cables receive stronger protection than regular telecoms assets, with mandatory security assessments and ownership screening in place. 11 jurisdictions established outage reporting obligations specifically for submarine cables. Only six surveyed jurisdictions have implemented submarine cable protection zones. Among the recent initiatives are the EU publishing the Cable Security Toolbox and China introducing new cybersecurity incident reporting rules which apply to submarine cables.
   
• Government measures. Only five surveyed jurisdictions offer incentives like funding or tax breaks to attract submarine cable investment within their territories. In turn, just three jurisdictions support initiatives for “sovereign” cable repair vessels. Recent measures include China expanding its domestic deep-sea engineering capabilities with the commissioning of the Tianyi Linghangzhe, a specialised cable-laying vessel. The EU has also allocated an additional €347m for 2026–2027 under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital programme to strategic submarine cable projects.

Scope

Cullen International's benchmark on submarine cable regulation is divided in three parts, analysing for each jurisdiction:

• Authorisation requirements for cable landing stations and foreign repair vessels to operate in territorial waters.
• Security and resilience of submarine cables: special protection requirements, restrictions on ownership, reporting obligations in case of outages, protection zones.
• Government measures to attract investment in submarine cables in the country, to have a geopolitical influence in the sector, or to promote “sovereign” cable repair vessels.

The research covered Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, the EU, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Nigeria, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, Türkiye (new), the UK, and the US. 

For more information and to access the benchmark, please click on “Access the full content” - or on “Request Access”, in case you are not subscribed to the Global Trends service.