WASHINGTON-The FBI should set digital wiretap capacity standards for messaging services based
on percentages rather than geography, said the Personal Communications Industry Association in comments filed with
the FBI last week. Those services include traditional paging, two-way paging, narrowband personal communications
services, mobile satellite services, specialized mobile radio and enhanced SMR.
“We’ve proposed an approach
to [the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994] capacity that is reasonable, extremely flexible
and easy to apply to all messaging providers, regardless of a carrier’s size,” said PCIA President Jay
Kitchen.
PCIA’s capacity approach is a formula that would determine a percentage based on the number of
subscribers a carrier has and the number of documented wiretaps.
This approach would differ from the capacity
standards the FBI has said it will use for telephony. Those capacity requirements are based on counties for local
exchange carriers and geographical service areas for cellular and broadband PCS.
The comments became necessary
when the FBI issued a Notice of Inquiry asking how it should establish capacity standards for carriers other than LECs,
cellular and broadband PCS.
PCIA was the only trade association to offer actual answers to the FBI’s
questions.
The American Mobile Telecommunications Association submitted comments but offered no solutions.
Instead AMTA’s comments pointed out that analog SMR has been in existence for decades and thus should not be
included in CALEA capacity standards.
“The technical capabilities of today’s analog SMR system are in all
material respects comparable to those that were placed in operation in the mid-1970s when such systems were first
authorized … [AMTA] recommends that law enforcement agencies and the industry continue to cooperate in
undertaking surveillance activities using the same approaches that have proven effective to date,” said
AMTA.
AMTA, which also represents ESMR operators, did not comment on capacity standards for ESMR.
The
Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, which does not represent the industries covered by the NOI, also
submitted comments. CTIA’s comments reiterate that it has filed a lawsuit challenging the capacity standards for LECs,
cellular and broadband PCS as “arbitrary and capricious.” Because of this pending lawsuit, the “FBI’s
request for comments is ill-timed, premature and should be withdrawn pending resolution of the lawsuit,” CTIA
said.
In its lawsuit, CTIA also has challenged the five day requirement for telephony carriers to become compliant.
PCIA also has questioned this requirement and said in its comments it could take as long as 90 days for the messaging
industry to become compliant.
