CALEA  for Broadband Service Providers

Introduction:

     The United States Congress passed 'Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act' otherwise known as CALEA in 1994 to enable Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to wiretap telephone calls placed to and from subscribers within the United States. Initially CALEA was applied to the PSTN network and did not address data interactions with the Internet. In 2004, the DoJ, FBI and the DEA filed a joint petition with the FCC to expand CALEA to include Internet traffic. Subsequently, the FCC issued a 'First Report and Order' in August, 2005 to include facilities based broadband service providers to be CALEA compliant and set May 14th 2007 as the deadline for such compliance. The deadline stipulations were upheld by the Second and Third Reports and Orders issued later on. For further information, please visit the links below:

    FCC's CALEA Portal                                                                    FBI's CALEA portal (AskCALEA)

    Frequently Asked Questions @ AskCALEA.net                             CALEA: Official Act (Downloadable Sections)

Solution Options:

     CALEA for Broadband Service Providers (Facilities based broadband service providers) essentially mandates ISPs to be compliant with provisions of the CALEA act by the 14th of May, 2007. An ISP might choose to deploy a solution or subscribe to a Trusted Third Party to help become CALEA compliant. As such, a form (445) needed to be submitted to the FCC describes the option chosen by the 17th of February, 2007

@Link Services LLC. as a Trusted Third Party (TTP):

       To be compliant with CALEA for Broadband service providers, @Link Services LLC. offers Trusted Third Party services for ISPs. As a TTP, @Link Services will receive the court orders (for surveillance) and will provide the information required to the appropriate LEAs. To provide TTP services, some changes might be needed to be provisioned in a client's network (ISP). For further information regarding @Link Services' Broadband CALEA solution (TTP) and quotes, please contact @Link Services (to register and to obtain authorization information). For registered members, information is available (with proper authorization) here.