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If you need the complete document, download the WordPerfect version or Adobe Acrobat version, if available. ***************************************************************** INTERNATIONAL BUREAU REPORT 1998 Section 43.82 Circuit Status Data December, 1999 Cathy Hsu Telecommunications Division 1998 Section 43.82 Circuit Status Data Introduction This report contains information on U.S. international facilities-based carriers' circuits as of year-end 1998, submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) by U.S. carriers pursuant to Section 43.82 of the Commission's rules. In addition, this report compiles data from the 1995 through 1997 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 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 because that unit is the basis for collecting the regulatory fee on active international circuits. The Commission's manual on filing circuit status reports defines 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 definition of "International facilities-based carrier" contained in Section 63.09 (a) of the Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R. 63.09 (a). This report includes both circuits from U.S. domestic points to foreign points and circuits from U.S. points to offshore U.S. points. 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. 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. 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 143 carriers that filed circuit status reports, a 54% increase from 1997's 93 filing entities. Only 71 carriers, however, filed with active or idle capacity. Among the filings, the three largest carriers - AT&T, MCI WorldCom, Inc. and Sprint Communications Company L.P. - have requested confidentiality under the Freedom of Information Act. There are a few smaller carriers that also requested 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 of the carriers' information, including information by those carriers asking for confidential treatment. The table also identifies those carriers that did not have active or idle capacity in 1998. For each transmission facility, we have presented the four years of available data (1995 through 1998). 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, 1997, and 1998 data. In Table 2, the undersea cable circuits account for 54% of the overall active transmission capacity in 1998, an increase of 9% from 1997. In Table 3, the international satellite circuits account for 8% of overall transmission capacity, compared to 11% in 1997. In Table 4, the terrestrial links account for 38% of 1998 active circuit capacity, a decrease of 6% from 1997. Table 5 combines all three transmission media. A service mix by region from 1995 to 1998 is calculated in the last page of Table 5. For 1998, IMTS circuits accounted for 44% of the total active capacity. This figure represents a continued drop in capacity use for IMTS, from 80% in 1995, 57% in 1996, and 53% in 1997. In fact, IMTS active circuits only increased by 12% from 1997 to 1998. In contrast, the data show the continuing trend of heavy and increasing use for private line service. There are six regions - Western Europe, Middle East, South America, Asia, Oceania, and Other (International water area) in which the number of activated private line circuits exceeded the number of IMTS circuits. The growth rate of private line circuits was 63% from 1997 to 1998, as compared with an increase of 49% from 1996 to 1997 (due to a carrier reporting error, our previous report showed a higher growth rate of 79% for 1997). Table 6 lists the top 30 destinations that account for 91% of the total U.S.-activated circuits at year-end 1998. Again, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan, and Germany are the top five countries. The United Kingdom replaced Mexico as the second among the top five countries. Previous years' top 30 ranking orders are also presented in the table for comparison. Chile and Portugal are new among the top 30 destinations in 1998, replacing India and Maritime Atlantic. Approximately half of the top 30 destinations experienced heavier capacity use on private lines than on IMTS in 1998. The ratio of IMTS to private line services has decreased from 4.3 in 1995, to 1.4 in 1996, to 1.2 in 1997, and to 0.8 in 1998. The ratio of IMTS to private line services for the top 30 destinations, as well as for each region, are also listed in Table 6. Supplementary Data Table 7 lists all operational trans-oceanic 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 the capacity listed, a new column, the reported construction cost of each cable, is included in Table 7 for further reference. In 1998, the combined cable capacity (activated and idle circuits) reported by U.S. carriers for the Trans-Atlantic region was 322,944 64 Kbps circuits (Regions 1, 2, 3 and 9); this accounts for 43.9% of the total available fiber optic cable capacity (as of December 31, 1998). For the Americas region (Regions 4, 5 and 6), U.S. carriers reported cable capacity accounting for 17% 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, 1998. We have also listed future cables in Table 7 for further reference.