Can you really rent out the sea bed? Oregon set to start charging service providers for undersea cables within three miles of its coastline

Date:
Mon, 27 Jul 2026 22:40:00 +0000

Description:
Oregon plans to boost its Common School Fund with one-time fee to cable operators for undersea installations within three miles of the states coastline.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Plans to triple application
fees and apply a price-per-foot on coastal cable installations have been announced by Oregon Oregon state planners believe the new structure could raise $1 million per new cable laid Protecting the coastline has become a political priority in recent years Oregon has announced plans to introduce a payment structure for service providers laying undersea cables off the coast of the Pacific state.

Currently, the low-tax and zoning incentives on offer make Oregon a particularly attractive location for tech companies including Microsoft and Amazon , and with major data centers (such as Google s Dalles installation) demanding increasing data infrastructure, state officials believe a new pricing arrangement is overdue. Oregon Department of State Lands is making
the proposal, which seeks to completely restructure the pricing around undersea cables, which has been fixed at $5,000 since 2001. Latest Videos
From TechRadar Watch full video here: Price per foot levy Even by tripling application fees, Oregon will still be a more affordable alternative for service providers upgrading or adding undersea cables than both California
and Washington.

The payment structure under consideration covers fees for applications and compensation for undersea infrastructure located on submerged and submersible land within Oregons territorial sea. You may like These are the island
nations most at risk from attacks on subsea cables Europe wants to dodge troublesome regions by building undersea cables beneath the Arctic How wave-powered ocean platforms could meet AI data center energy demands

Currently, new application fees are $5,000, with the proposed new fee set at $15,000. Renewal applications are set to increase from $5,000 to $7,500, with a new encroachment application fee, also set at $7,500 (this describes any building or development on any state-owned land that restricts its usual purpose).

Cables up to three inches in diameter have been assigned a $3-per-foot basic annual fee, with conduits charged at $7. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me
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But how might these fees be applied to any new cable installations? Some calculations based on the Amazon Bitfrost cable project, which determined
that a total of $1,450,380 was due for two decades, which would be funneled into Oregons Common School Fund.

These fees are a revision of an earlier, more expensive set of proposals, and while the Amazon Bitfrost project example may seem high, it is a literal drop in the ocean compared with the budgets required to lay cables across the Pacific somewhere in the region of $400 million. Corporate responsibility Oregon is also proposing new rules that govern how much information companies submit in applications. This covers everything from decommissioning outdated cabling to outlining responses to earthquakes (such as an anticipated
Cascadia Subduction Zone event, which is believed to be overdue).

Various challenges to how companies operate off the coast of Oregon have arisen in recent years, such as a Meta subsidiary attempting to install new cabling at Tierra Del Mar in 2020. This abandoned project resulted in a pollution incident with 6,500 gallons of drill fluid dumped in the ocean and
a pair of sinkholes appearing the following year.

The fees are expected to be introduced in January 2027. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/can-you-really-rent-out-the-sea-bed-oregon-set-t o-start-charging-service-providers-for-undersea-cables-within-three-miles-of-i ts-coastline


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