WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to toughen oversight of submarine communications cables that handle 99% ​of international internet traffic, proposing rules that will make it harder for Chinese companies ‌to provide equipment and fast-track approvals for trusted U.S. tech firms.

The FCC said it was planning to require licenses for the first time for operators of submarine line terminal equipment, which perform the most critical function of ​a submarine cable system by connecting to U.S. terrestrial facilities.

U.S. companies such as Facebook parent Meta META.O and Alphabet GOOGL.O unit Google are set to benefit from the process to get quicker approval to operate additional undersea cable systems to handle growing internet traffic.