The FCC International Bureau Fri. approved a controversial sale o...
The FCC International Bureau Fri. approved a controversial sale of Tyco Telecom’s undersea cable system to VSNL Telecom, pending conditions. The firm’s sought FCC approval to assign Tyco’s interests to VSNL for 2 cables that land in the U.S.:…
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Tyco Atlantic and Tyco Pacific. Crest Communications opposed the sale for national defense and competition reasons. VSNL is majority owned by the Indian govt. and a large Indian company. However, the Justice Dept., Homeland Security Dept. and Defense Dept. said in an April 11 petition they could sign off on the deal if the FCC added conditions agreed to by VSNL, the bureau said. The bureau said Crest’s concerns weren’t sufficiently convincing to turn down the petition. “We defer to the Executive Branch’s expertise on national security and law enforcement issues” and grant the petition with the requested conditions, the bureau said. The FCC public notice announcing the approval didn’t spell out the conditions. However, press reports at the time said the conditions involved security measures such as a guarantee the U.S. govt. can continue to install authorized wiretaps on the network. The proposed sale to VSNL was announced in Nov. and the FCC action was considered the last step in the approval process.