Broadband voip review

Calea Petition Concerns Voip Proponents

Byline: Donny Jackson

A far-reaching petition from the nation's most powerful law enforcement bodies calling for surveillance access of voice-over-IP calls and other broadband services could hamper development of the emerging technologies.

In a recent joint petition, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration asked the FCC to make packet-mode services subject to provisions of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which governs surveillance access of messages transported by carriers.

The law enforcement agencies claim their efforts to conduct surveillance are being undermined by communications providers that claim they are not required to comply with CALEA. The petition seeks an expedited response from the FCC to clarify the matter.

"The importance and the urgency of this task cannot be overstated," according to the petition. "These problems are real, not hypothetical, and their impact on the ability of federal, state and local law enforcement to protect the public is growing with each passing day."

Citing the CALEA statute, the petition notes that law enforcement's surveillance rights are "not confined to voice telephony, but [extend] to any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photo-optical system.'"

Designating VoIP providers as telecommunications carriers is a troublesome issue for the FCC, which has expressed its desire to let the nascent technology develop free of the regulatory obligations that burden traditional carriers. Realizing this, the law enforcement petitioners noted that declaring a provider as a telecommunications carrier under CALEA does not mean it has to be a telecommunications carrier under the Communications Act, which would establish regulatory obligations.

Although subtle in distinction, the recommendation may be the foundation of an accord that satisfies law enforcement without exposing VoIP to unnecessary regulations, said Dorothy Attwood, SBC's senior vice president of regulatory strategy.

"Regardless of the classification, we have to make sure that law enforcement has the tools it needs," Attwood said.

VoIP providers previously have expressed a desire to work voluntarily with law enforcement to provide the surveillance access called for in CALEA, but legally requiring compliance is a potentially expensive proposition, according to Christy Kunin, a partner in the law firm of Gray Cary and counsel for VoIP provider 8x8.

"[Mandating CALEA compliance is] going to impose huge costs, and it's going to delay implementation," Kunin said.

Kunin characterized the petition as "overreaching," noting that law enforcement officials are anxious to have this issue decided by an FCC headed by Michael Powell, son of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is acutely aware of the administration's security goals. The results are aggressive comment-and-reply periods for this proceeding that ensure a decision will not be affected by a potential change in the FCC following the November election.

"This is a very fast timeline, so the commission is clearly taking this very seriously," Kunin said. "And this is the commission that the agencies think can get this done."

Indeed, law enforcement agencies typically are hard-line negotiators, according to Scott Cleland, CEO of The Precursor Group. Although law enforcement is "asking for the moon" in the petition, the fact that these entities reached an agreement with the FCC that allowed the commission to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking should be an encouraging sign to the VoIP industry.

"The law-enforcement folks are eventually going to get their way," Cleland said. "[But] it's way too early to determine the end game here."