DCBLOX: FCC License Stalled Due to National Security Concerns
The Justice Department told the FCC to stand down on Google’s Sol cable license — for national security reasons. Five days later, Palm Coast issued a building permit. The building is under construction. No license has been granted.
An FCC license is not required to build a data center. One is required to land an international submarine cable. The Palm Coast facility at the center of the DC Blox / Google Sol cable initiative has neither a license nor a clear path to one. The United States Department of Justice has intervened on national security grounds, and the federal licensing process is stalled.
The license application — and the ownership record behind it — tells a story the public has not been told.
It Is Google’s Project
The building parcel — Lot 7B, the seven-acre site where the cable landing station is going up — was sold to Tarpon Services LLC, a wholly owned Google subsidiary. Tarpon filed the site plan. Tarpon is the applicant of record on the development order. The FPL easement was signed by Mark Fumia at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View — Google’s headquarters address. The FCC application was filed by Starfish Infrastructure Inc. — a wholly owned Google subsidiary. The application was drafted by Morgan Lewis attorneys whose contact email was starfish-legal@google.com. The certification was signed by Nigel Bayliff — Google. The in-house counsel were Google LLC employees at Google’s Washington office. The application disclosed the full chain — Starfish to Sea Coral Holdings to Google LLC to XXVI Holdings to Alphabet — on page six of the original filing.
Tarpon and Starfish are shell companies — wholly owned, created to hold pieces of the project, with no independent ability to affect the operation they exist to support. The FCC application says so directly: Tarpon, it states, “will not have any independent ability to affect the system’s operation.” A company with no independent ability to affect the thing it owns is not a business. It is a name on a deed.
The parcel next door — Lot 7A, the larger tract held for the future second building — is owned by DCB Orchid LLC, a DC Blox entity. DC Blox also holds a 25-year colocation agreement to run the facility as Google’s contractor. DC Blox is the one local name in this story. It owns the empty lot next door and works for Google. It does not appear anywhere in the FCC proceeding.
The public was told this was a DC Blox project. The federal record shows it was Google’s project from the day the land was purchased.
The Federal Record
The application was filed September 10, 2025. The FCC accepted it for filing February 13, 2026. Eleven days later, February 24, the Department of Justice wrote to the FCC. Two weeks, it said. DHS is out of money.
March 12. Two more weeks. DHS is still out of money.
March 26. Two more weeks. DHS is still out of money. A footnote added: if this continues, the next step is deferral.
April 3. DOJ did not ask for two more weeks. It told the FCC to stand down. The letter said DOJ was reviewing the matter for national security purposes. It said DOJ would notify the FCC whether Google would be required to accept conditions before any license could be granted.
The April 3, 2026 letter from the Justice Department’s National Security Division to the FCC. “DOJ is reviewing this matter for national security purposes.” — Read the letter
Five days later, the City of Palm Coast issued a building permit. Ground was broken.
April 10. The comment period closed. The FCC referred the application to the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector.
April 21. The Committee wrote to the FCC. It was reviewing the application. The 120-day review clock had not yet started. Google had not yet completed responses to the Committee’s opening questions.
June 28, 2026. No license has been granted. The building is under construction.
What the Record Shows
On April 3, the day the Department of Justice formally escalated to national security review, Google’s name appeared in the public record for the first and only time in the correspondence.
The Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense were copied simultaneously. Three federal agencies were notified on the same day that Google’s cable landing station application was being elevated to national security review.
The Committee’s review is ongoing. The 120-day initial review period had not yet begun as of the last document in the public record. When it begins, the clock runs for 120 days. The Committee may then request an additional 90-day secondary review. There is no fixed deadline for a grant.
The facility now under construction in Palm Coast’s Town Center is a cable landing station. Its purpose is to connect international submarine cables to land-based fiber networks. Without a federal license, no cable lands. The building can go up. The cranes can work. The permit is valid.
The license is another matter entirely. That decision belongs to the federal government. And the federal government, as of June 28, 2026, has not made it.
What You Can Do
This proceeding remains open to public communication. Under 47 C.F.R. § 1.1206, any person may submit an ex parte communication directly to the FCC for inclusion in the public record of SCL-LIC-20250910-00044. There is no filing fee. No legal standing is required.
A template ex parte letter is available below. It may be filed electronically via the FCC’s International Bureau Filing System at fcc.gov/ibfs — search for file number SCL-LIC-20250910-00044 and use the File Related Submission function — or emailed to ICFSinfo@fcc.gov with the file number in the subject line.
Template Ex Parte Letter
Via Electronic Filing
Federal Communications Commission
Office of International Affairs
Telecommunications and Analysis Division
45 L Street NE
Washington, D.C. 20554
Re: Ex Parte Communication
File No. SCL-LIC-20250910-00044
Applicant: Starfish Infrastructure Inc.
Matter: Application for Cable Landing License — Sol Submarine Cable System
Dear Commission Staff:
Pursuant to 47 C.F.R. § 1.1206, I submit this ex parte communication
for inclusion in the public record of the above-referenced proceeding.
I am [NAME], [TITLE], representing [CITY/ORGANIZATION/SELF], and I write
to bring to the Commission's attention several matters of public concern
regarding the construction of the proposed U.S. cable landing station for
the Sol cable system in Palm Coast, Flagler County, Florida.
I. CONSTRUCTION IS UNDERWAY WITHOUT A GRANTED LICENSE
The Commission accepted the above-referenced application for filing on
February 13, 2026 (DA-26-155). As of the date of this communication, no
license has been granted. Notwithstanding the pendency of this proceeding,
the City of Palm Coast issued a building permit on April 8, 2026 for the
construction of the cable landing station at 1035 Town Center Boulevard,
Palm Coast, Florida 32164. Construction is currently underway.
The parcel on which the cable landing station is being constructed is owned
by Tarpon Services LLC — identified in the application as an indirect wholly
owned subsidiary of Google LLC — under Parcel ID 05-12-31-5855-00000-0071,
Flagler County, Florida (OR Book 2940, Page 1267).
I respectfully request that the Commission note in the record that active
construction of the U.S. cable landing station is occurring prior to license
grant, and that the Commission consider whether any conditions on the
ultimate license grant should address the sequence and scope of construction
that has already occurred.
II. PUBLIC REVIEW WAS BYPASSED AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
Under the City of Palm Coast's Land Development Code, development projects
exceeding 40,000 square feet require review by the Planning and Land
Development Regulation Board (PLDRB), a public body that affords community
members notice and an opportunity to be heard. The cable landing station as
permitted is 34,875 square feet — below the threshold that would trigger
public review.
However, a vice president of DC Blox — the company operating the cable
landing station — stated publicly on June 19, 2026 that the full buildout
of the campus would be 100,000 square feet across two buildings. The City
of Palm Coast issued a public correction following that disclosure.
The public was not afforded any meaningful opportunity to comment on this
project at the local level. The Commission's proceeding under the Cable
Landing License Act represents, in practical terms, the only federal forum
in which public concerns regarding this infrastructure can be raised.
III. THE NATIONAL SECURITY REVIEW WAS CONDUCTED UNDER CONDITIONS
OF INSTITUTIONAL DISRUPTION
The Commission's records reflect that the U.S. Department of Justice,
National Security Division, Telecom and Supply Chain Foreign Investment
Review Section, requested extensions of the public comment deadline on
three separate occasions — February 24, March 12, and March 26, 2026 —
each time citing a lapse of funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security. The comment deadline was ultimately extended to April 10, 2026.
I respectfully request that the Commission confirm in the public record
that the Team Telecom national security review of this application was
completed in full, and that any conditions or commitments arising from that
review have been or will be incorporated into the terms of any license
granted.
IV. REQUEST
I respectfully request that the Commission:
1. Include this communication in the public record of
SCL-LIC-20250910-00044;
2. Confirm whether the Team Telecom national security review has been
completed;
3. Consider conditions on any license grant that address the scope of
the full planned buildout, not only the structure currently under
construction; and
4. Provide public notice when final action is taken on this application.
Respectfully submitted,
[NAME]
[TITLE]
[ORGANIZATION]
[ADDRESS]
[PHONE]
[EMAIL]
[DATE]
---
FILING INSTRUCTIONS: File electronically via fcc.gov/ibfs — search for
SCL-LIC-20250910-00044 and use the File Related Submission function.
Or email to ICFSinfo@fcc.gov with the file number in the subject line.
Serve a copy on: Starfish Infrastructure Inc., c/o Google LLC,
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043.
Under 47 C.F.R. § 1.1206, this communication will be placed in the
public record and disclosed to all parties.