WASHINGTON-For the second time, the law enforcement community has nixed an industry-crafted digital wiretap standard by taking advantage of liberal voting procedures in a way that wireless companies believe amounts to stuffing the ballot box.
Last week’s setback is expected to further fuel the flames of controversy between the FBI and the wireless industry over the implementation of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act and will likely delay future congressional funding.
Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the House commerce appropriations subcommittee, told FBI and wireless industry officials to resolve their differences and not to count on funding until then.
Though authorized at $500 million for fiscal years 1995 through 1998, only $100 million has been appropriated to CALEA to date. That amount was for fiscal 1997, which ended Sept. 30.
The House is pushing for $50 million in fiscal 1998, while Senate appropriators haven’t earmarked any money for CALEA for that period. The money goes to compensate telecom carriers that make hardware and software modifications to their switches, as required by CALEA. The problem is that much of the wireless industry is effectively blocked from receiving any dollars because of a provision that cuts off reimbursement to carriers that haven’t deployed systems by Jan. 1, 1995. That cuts out more than 2,000 new personal communications services licensees.
In addition, wireless carriers that have made major network changes, such as shifting from analog to digital technology, are deemed to be in noncompliance. That puts a company like AT&T Corp., the largest mobile phone operator in the nation, in a position of having to pay $10,000 a day in fines until it fulfills yet-to-be-hashed-out CALEA requirements.
In the meantime, the clock is ticking and carriers must be in compliance with CALEA wiretap requirements a year from now, even though those requirements have yet to be established.
Given the near impossibility of making the technical upgrades by then, the wireless industry is hoping Congress will agree to move back the October 1998 compliance date and the Jan. 1, 1995, reimbursement eligibility date.
“I’m still hopeful we and the Justice Department can find a solution,” said Thomas Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
While the purpose of the legislation is to help law enforcement eavesdropping keep pace with telecom technological advances, the wireless industry and privacy advocates claim the FBI wants more than is mandated by CALEA in terms of legal, technical and financial obligations.
For example, the industry says the FBI wants the ability to continue listening in on conference calls even if the subject of a wiretap goes on hold or hangs up.
Barry Smith, an FBI spokesman, said wiretaps cover calls in their entirety, regardless of whether the wiretap target drops off the line.
There have been suggestions in industry that law enforcement skewed the most recent wiretap standard balloting by drumming up 186 “no” votes to overwhelm the 26 industry votes in favor of a revised industry wiretap standard.
Smith scoffed at that. “Obviously, this (CALEA) impacts state and local as well as federal law enforcement agencies. I truly believe their voices should be heard and they should have a right to have their concerns heard.”
Despite the behind-the-scenes warring, the wireless industry continues to support law enforcement electronic surveillance efforts.
A third of authorized wiretaps in 1996 were wireless and the intercept rate last year was 78-percent higher for wireless than for wireline telcos.
“We’re in exactly the same place as we were last year, without a consensus on a standard. PCIA is continuing to work with the FBI to get this issue resolved,” said Jeff Cohen, a spokesman for the Personal Communications Industry Association.
