[IP] FCC Chmn: VOiP and the Feds
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Meeks, Brock (MSNBCi)" <Brock.Meeks@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 4, 2004 9:13:23 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: FCC Chmn: VOiP and the Feds
And so the hammer drops on VOiP:
STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN MICHAEL K. POWELL
Re: In the Matter of Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
and Broadband Access and Services, RM-10865, ET Docket No.
We are entering a dynamic space in the evolution of Internet voice
services and applications. As technologies re-shape communications,
this Commission must continually assess the needs of the law
enforcement community under the Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act ("CALEA").
More and more people are taking advantage of these new and exciting
competitive voice offerings, and we are starting to see substantial
consumer and economic benefits emerge. The development and success of
the Internet has been a result, in part, of our desire to maintain its
minimally regulated status.
Above all, law enforcement access to IP-enabled communications is
essential.
CALEA requirements can and should apply to VoIP and other IP enabled
service providers, even if these services are "information services"
for purposes of the Communications Act. The NPRM we issue today
demonstrates that the interests of the law enforcement community can be
fully addressed for potential information services and these interests
need not be an excuse for imposing onerous common carrier regulations
on vibrant new services.
Previous Commission action on CALEA has focused primarily on
circuit-mode technology. Today's item takes a major step in
implementing CALEA, particularly with respect to new packet-mode
technologies, by tentatively concluding that broadband Internet access
services and managed voice over Internet protocol ("VoIP") services are
subject to CALEA.
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. Additionally, the item addresses important
compliance and cost issues, and requests comment on (1) the feasibility
of carriers relying on a trusted third party to manage their CALEA
compliance obligations; and (2) whether standards for packet
technologies are deficient and preclude carriers relying on them as
safe harbors for complying with CALEA's capability requirements.
Finally, in the companion Declaratory Ruling grants in part a Law
Enforcement request in the Petition and clarifies that commercial
wireless "push-to-talk" services are subject to CALEA, regardless of
the technologies that Commercial Mobile Radio Service providers choose
to apply in offering them.
I write to make clear that our tentative conclusion is expressly
limited to the requirements of the CALEA statute and does not indicate
a willingness on my part to find that VoIP services are
telecommunications services under Title II of the Communications Act.
We have before us a pending rulemaking and several petitions for
declaratory ruling that address themselves to the classification of
VoIP services and nothing in this item prejudices the outcome of those
proceedings.
Our support for law enforcement is unwavering; it is our goal in this
proceeding to ensure that law enforcement agencies have all of the
electronic surveillance capabilities that CALEA authorizes to combat
crime and terrorism and support Homeland Security. The Commission will
devote the necessary resources to expeditiously and responsibly
complete this task. In the interim, carriers, the law enforcement
community and the Commission must continue to work in partnership to
ensure that law enforcement retains access to the information they have
now and to ensure that they have the tools they need in this ever
changing environment.
--end--
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