FCC Won’t Extend CALEA Deadline for VoIP, Broadband Providers
The FCC voted Wed. to keep a May 14, 2007 deadline for CALEA compliance by VoIP and broadband access providers. USTelecom had asked for an extension. The CALEA Act requires network providers to develop capabilities and standards designed to give law enforcement agencies access to networks.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The deadline decision was one of several in an order that gave more guidance to VoIP and broadband providers on how to meet CALEA obligations the agency imposed in Sept. At that time, the FCC set an 18-month compliance clock. USTelecom wanted the agency to restart the clock when Wed.’s follow-up order was approved.
The FCC at its agenda meeting also decided the same compliance date should apply to all broadband and VoIP because “applying the same compliance date to all providers will eliminate any possible confusion about the applicability of the deadline, avoid any skewing effect on competition and prevent migration of criminal activity onto networks with delayed compliance dates.”
The latest FCC CALEA order rejected requests from academia for exemption from the CALEA requirements, or at least subsidies to help institutions with compliance costs. FCC Comr. Tate was adamant in backing the Commission decision, saying she wasn’t “persuaded merely by large speculative allegations that the financial burden on the higher education community could total billions of dollars.” Tate said the earlier order didn’t impose CALEA obligations on all college networks, only those interconnected with the PSTN or Internet -- with only the connection point between the private and public networks in those cases subject to CALEA. “I understand and appreciate the concerns of America’s colleges and universities but I am also mindful of the balancing of interests at stake here, and the need to place great weight on the factors of public safety and national security,” Tate said. But FCC Comr. Copps said the agency should clarify higher education networks’ obligations. “Numerous institutions of higher learning have expressed concern” about the first order’s language, Copps said.
The FCC gave telecom carriers permission to use “trusted third parties” - mainly meaning surveillance experts -- to help them with CALEA duties. The agency said such experts can help carriers provide law enforcement agencies with data they require “in an acceptable format.” Tate said consultants could save carriers money and help cut the cost of bringing higher education networks into compliance. “Trusted third parties are a legitimate way for carriers to manage their CALEA obligations,” said Copps, adding that they perform a number of services, offering “more cost-effective options for compliance, particularly for small carriers.”
The FCC also decided it would be “premature” to intervene in standards-setting being done by telecom standards bodies with contributions from law enforcement. Standards development is “well underway,” Rodney Small, economist in the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, said in briefing the commissioners during the meeting.
Other guidance: (1) Compliance extensions under CALEA Sec. 107(c) are available only to equipment, facilities and services deployed before Oct. 25, 1998. The FCC also clarified that CALEA Sec. 109(b) offers “only limited relief” from compliance costs. (2) In addition to law enforcement remedies, the FCC is empowered to act against carriers failing to comply with CALEA obligations. (3) It declined to impose “a national surcharge” to recover CALEA costs because “such a mechanism would increase the administrative burden placed upon carriers and provide little incentive for them to minimize their costs.” The order said carriers are responsible for CALEA development and implementation costs for post-Jan. 1, 1995, equipment and facilities. (4) The FCC required broadband Internet access and VoIP services to submit interim reports to ensure they will be compliant by the deadline. In addition, all providers falling under the Sept. order must comply with “system security requirements” within 90 days of this 2nd order.
NCTA and CableLabs called the FCC action a “logical next step in setting CALEA compliance ground rules” for broadband services. They said the cable industry was among the first to develop ways to accommodate law enforcement access to VoIP services and now CableLabs is working with the FBI on similar access to cable modem service.