Speaker: Pending anti-terrorism laws to impact telecom industry

PHOENIX—Three laws working their way through Congress could have a profound impact on telecommunications carriers according to Michael Warren, president of Intercept Compliance Solutions.

Warren, a former official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who logged 29 years with the bureau, told attendees of the United States Telecom Association’s (USTA) annual convention that should the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001, the Patriot Act of 2001 or the Intelligence to Prevent Terrorism Act of 2001--or some hybrid of the three--become law, anti-terrorism efforts would become an important aspect of their businesses.

He said the laws would create a new view concerning telecommunications industry cooperation with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA).

“For law-enforcement agencies, the result would be less tolerance for non-compliance, and, for telcos, there would be greater apprehension as to how to comply,” said Warren.

The laws would also place a greater burden on the FCC, which would have to create a definition of what constitutes a telecommunications operator, which would determine which companies would bear the burden of compliance, said Warren.

Collectively, the laws propose to expand the definitions for pen registers and trap-and-trace devices so they include Internet service providers and wireless carriers, amongst other things.

Perhaps the most significant change concerns a nationwide application of surveillance orders. Previously, an order was valid only in the state in which it was issued. The new laws would make an order valid in any state. In addition, law-enforcement agencies would be granted the authority to issue “administrative subpoenas,” which would let them issue subpoenas without first going to the courts.

All of this will make it easier for law enforcement to force carriers to force a carrier to relinquish information considered relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation, according to Warren.

“The result is carriers are going to have a lot more surveillance activity on their networks, the standards law-enforcement agencies have to meet will be much lower, and there will be a lot more subpoenas,” he said.

Warren said carriers would be wise to submit requests for CALEA exceptions soon, otherwise they are “not going to have cover” once these laws are passed and will be subject to enforcement actions.

While it might be difficult to argue against greater surveillance of activity on voice and data networks in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 tragedies, CALEA compliance is not inexpensive to achieve and is particularly burdensome for smaller carriers.

Nevertheless, the wireline sector of the industry has a long commitment of working with law enforcement and that likely will not change, said Linda Kent, USTA associate general counsel.

“We want to make sure we can do anything that needs to be done given this new threat,” she said.