FC: MetaSwitch embeds police spy features in new Net-phone switch

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Here's some background on CALEA, aka Digital Telephony, aka the
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=calea

Two interesting posts (from Barry and John, four years ago):
http://www.politechbot.com/p-00656.html
http://www.politechbot.com/p-00653.html

One section of CALEA, for example, says a "telecommunications carrier
shall ensure that its equipment, facilities, or services that provide
a customer or subscriber [to communicate] are capable of...
expeditiously isolating and enabling the government... to intercept...
all wire and electronic communications..."
http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/calea_law.html

-Declan

---

http://www.metaswitch.com/news/calea.htm
   
Press Release: MetaSwitch VP3500 Completes CALEA Review with FBI

Next Generation Class 5 Switch vendor offers on-board solution for service
providers

   Alameda, CA: April 10, 2003. MetaSwitch, supplier of the VP3500, the
   industry's first true Next Generation Class 5 Switch, announced today
   that it has completed an extensive review with the FBI, which
   demonstrates that the MetaSwitch CALEA specification meets the
   J-STD-025A standard for circuit switching equipment.
   
   CALEA, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, requires
   that U.S. carriers provide Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) with the
   continued ability to perform electronic surveillance with existing and
   new telecommunications switching equipment. Electronic surveillance
   consists of either the interception of call content (commonly referred
   to as wiretaps) and/or the interception of call-identifying
   information (commonly referred to as dialed-number extraction).
   
   "We simplified providing CALEA compliance for our customers by
   incorporating CALEA functionality on-board the MetaSwitch VP3500
   rather than requiring additional external equipment", said John Lazar,
   Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "We are ensuring the
   completeness of our solution with ongoing testing with the FBI."
   
   In light of the current uncertainty in world events, electronic
   surveillance is becoming increasingly important as a tool for law
   enforcement agencies. Therefore it is vital that vendors and
   telecommunications carriers develop and deploy solutions that support
   electronic surveillance, in both traditional TDM and next generation
   packet-based networks.
   
   Technical requirements or standards for CALEA capabilities have been
   established for several categories of telecommunications by industry
   associations or standard-setting organizations, in consultation with
   representatives of the law enforcement community. The
   Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and Committee T1,
   standards organizations, are currently working on a further revision,
   J-STD-025B to cover packet based networks.
   
   About MetaSwitch
   
   MetaSwitch, a division of Data Connection, is the result of 21 years
   of experience supplying leading-edge technology to the
   telecommunications industry. Data Connection's track record of
   consistent profitability ensures long-term commitment to product
   development and customer support. The MetaSwitch VP3500 Next
   Generation Class 5 Switch offers service providers an immediate
   solution for broadband (VoIP and/or VoATM) and POTS service and a
   future-proof "softswitch" architecture for enhanced applications.
   
   MetaSwitch has offices in Alameda, CA, Dallas, TX, and Reston, VA in
   the US, and London, Chester and Edinburgh in the UK.
   
   For more information, see www.metaswitch.com.
   
   Contact:
   Carol Daniels
   MetaSwitch
   510 748 8230
   chd () metaswitch com
   
   Data Connection and MetaSwitch are trademarks of Data Connection
   Limited and Data Connection Corporation. Brands and products
   referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their
   respective holders.



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