WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission needs to rule on when call-identifying information is “reasonably available” to be given to law enforcement by carriers implementing the digital wiretap act, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association was expected to tell the FCC in comments due at press time.
A ruling on reasonably achievable call-identifying information could solve the issue of the controversial punch list, CTIA said. The punch list refers to nine capabilities industry and privacy advocates argue go beyond the scope of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994.
An illustration of call-identifying information is “post-cut-through” dialing when placing a toll-free call. Post-cut-through dialing are the buttons pushed in response to choices. For example, when dialing a long-distance company, the caller will be asked to choose between a credit call and a collect call.
Carriers contend such responses are impossible to distinguish from other signaling used for fax machines and modems or a child playing on the telephone. “The accessing carrier has no idea whether a subscriber, when pressing the keys on the phone, is playing the tune, `Mary Had a Little Lamb’ to someone or asking the long-distance carrier to route a call,” CTIA said.
CTIA also is concerned that even if this information was technically feasible, it would violate privacy laws by requiring carriers to “dabble in a call’s content to provide the requested information.”
In the same filing, CTIA asked the FCC to allow the industry to file supplemental comments following the reply-comment round to prevent the government from giving legal rationales to its proposed technical standard in its reply comments. “Should the [Department of Justice], in its reply comments, finally provide the legal and factual basis for its claims … industry will not have an opportunity to respond to DOJ and any new information or legal arguments raised,” CTIA said.
