INDUSTRY GROUPS JOIN TO PETITION FCC

CTIA, PCIA, USTA and TIA have joined to ask the FCC to resolve the dispute between the industry and the FBI over new wiretap requirements. The industry groups state that they are committed to assisting law enforcement agencies to carry out court-ordered wiretaps, but they argue that the FBI is requesting surveillance capabilities that go beyond the law. In 1995 Congress passed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) with the purpose of upgrading law enforcement's tools. The Act specified for the industry to develop standards with the FBI but no consensus was reached. The telecom industry claims that the FBI requested the ability to listen to telephone conversations of people who were not the subjects of court-ordered wiretaps, but who previously had been in conversations with subjects on a conference call.