WASHINGTON-The war of words between the wireless industry and law enforcement over the time frame and requirements of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act is becoming more strident as letters between those two entities, Congress and the Justice Department, continue to circulate in hopes of crafting a final agreement.
A group comprising the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, the Personal Communications Industry Association, the Telecommunications Industry Association and the U.S. Telephone Association, in a Feb. 10 letter to Stephen Colgate at the Justice Department, said it was happy with the agency’s determination that at least two of the FBI’s “punch list” requirements “far exceed the scope of CALEA.” However, the group expressed disappointment that Justice was not clear about any future plans to implement the forbearance the wireless industry needs regarding an unreachable October 1998 compliance date. The four associations anticipate that “hundreds of carriers and vendors soon will be bringing their petitions for an extension to the Federal Communications Commission.”
The letter pointed out that Attorney General Janet Reno still has not published any sort of final notice regarding capacity requirements, even though they were due almost two years ago. An implementation strategy outlined in a Feb. 4 letter also failed to address nonpriority wireline switches; nonpriority GSM switches installed or deployed after Jan. 1, 1995; and the role of the paging and specialized mobile radio industries. “Agreeing to a two-year extension would simply recognize these conditions,” the group said. Otherwise, they reiterated their belief that the FCC will be inundated with waiver paperwork.
On the other hand, if law enforcement would publish its capacity requirements and if compliance dates were changed, the telecom industry could “quickly develop and deploy CALEA solutions in confidence and within the $500 million cost ceiling established by Congress,” the group proposed.
After reading the FBI’s Jan. 26 CALEA implementation report, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) also chided Reno and FBI director Louis Freeh for pushing parts of the punch list-such as a single format for information delivery and the capability to eavesdrop on all parties in a multiple-party call, even those who have been put on “hold”-and for Justice’s lateness in filing its capacity requirements.
On Feb. 4, Leahy wrote, “I am concerned that if the capability compliance date is not extended, carriers may seek to avoid the risk of incurring substantial penalties and/or bad publicity by striking deals with the Department of Justice and/or the FBI that will unravel the important balance among privacy, innovation and law enforcement interests around which the law was crafted. Please advise me how you expect telecommunications carriers to meet the Oct. 25, 1998, compliance date. Should compliance with capability assistance requirements be delayed until compliance with the capacity requirements are effective? If not, please explain why.”
Perhaps to nudge Justice to reply quickly, Leahy added that questions he submitted regarding a CALEA oversight hearing last June still had not been answered, and he closed with, “Your cooperation would be appreciated.”
