CALEA for VoIP

[Ben Teitelbaum <>]

You've probably all seen the news [1,2]...

  "In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Notice), the Commission
  tentatively concludes that CALEA applies to facilities-based
  providers of any type of broadband Internet access service including
  wireline, cable modem, satellite, wireless, and powerline and to
  managed or mediated Voice over Internet Protocol ( VoIP )
  services. These tentative conclusions are based on a Commission
  proposal that these services fall under CALEA as a replacement for a
  substantial portion of the local telephone exchange service."

What this means for our efforts, I'm not sure, but I suspect the devil
will be in the forthcoming rulemaking.  For example, what exactly is a
"managed or mediated VoIP service" and what sorts of VoIP pass the
"substantial replacement" test?

Chairman Powell's comments [3] are encouraging:

  "The item also tentatively concludes that non-managed, or
  disintermediated, VoIP and Instant Messaging are not subject to
  CALEA, and that it is unnecessary to identify future services and
  entities subject to CALEA."

as is Jeff Pulver's observation [4] that "the item does not propose to
classify VoIP as a telecommunications services, and, therefore, should
not take us down a slippery slope in which VoIP would be categorized
as a telecom service and subject to the host of telecom regulations."

As some of you may recall, Internet2 joined a coalition of higher
education and library associations opposing the application of CALEA
to the Internet [5].

Interesting times indeed..

-- ben

1. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-250547A3.pdf
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/05/technology/05phone.html
3. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-250547A1.pdf
4. 
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200408/msg00041.html
5. http://www.internet2.edu/pubs/20040413-Comments-CALEA.pdf