[Here is a client alert from Chadbourne and Parke. It's a nice summary of the CALEA issues. --Declan] Date: March 22, 2004 Re: Client Alert: Rulemaking Concerning the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act Comments Due: April 12, 2004 Reply Comments Due: April 27, 2004 ___________________________________________________________________________ On March 10, 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (collectively “Law Enforcement”) submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) a request for a rulemaking proceeding concerning outstanding issues involving the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (“CALEA”). CALEA, passed by Congress in 1994, is intended to maintain law enforcement agencies’ ability to conduct lawfully approved electronic surveillance despite changing telecommunications technologies. CALEA defines the telecommunications industry’s obligations to provision lawful electronic surveillance capabilities and requires the industry to develop CALEA intercept solutions. The FCC is charged with several responsibilities for CALEA implementation. In the face of changing technology, Law Enforcement has expressed concern over the implementation of CALEA, noting several outstanding issues that it seeks to resolve through a rulemaking proceeding at the FCC. Among the issues for which Law Enforcement seeks resolution at the FCC are: formal identification of the types of services and entities subject to CALEA; formal identification of the services that are considered “packet-mode services” for the purpose of developing standards for compliance with CALEA; issuance of an FCC statement and, ultimately adopting final rules, finding that broadband access services and broadband telephony services are subject to CALEA; reaffirmation that push-to-talk “dispatch” service is subject to CALEA; adoption of rules that provide for the easy and rapid identification of CALEA-covered services and entities; establishment of benchmarks and deadlines for CALEA packet-mode compliance; adoption of rules that provide for the establishment of benchmarks and deadlines for CALEA compliance with future CALEA-covered technologies; outlining of the criteria for extensions of any benchmarks and deadlines for compliance with future CALEA-covered technologies established by the FCC; establishment of rules to permit Law Enforcement to request information regarding CALEA compliance generally; establishment of procedures for enforcement actions against entities that do not comply with CALEA obligations; confirmation that carriers bear sole financial responsibility for CALEA implementation costs for post-January 1, 1995, communications equipment, facilities and services; permitting of carriers to recover their CALEA implementation costs from their customers; and clarification of the cost methodology and financial responsibility associated with intercept provisioning. As the FCC indicated it would in its recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Voice-over-Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) issues, the FCC initiated a rulemaking proceeding to address Law Enforcement’s concerns. Comments are due April 12, 2004, with reply comments due April 27, 2004. We encourage telecommunications and information service providers subject to CALEA to participate in this rulemaking proceeding. ****** _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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