Telecom Law Blog

On Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006, the Electronic Freedom Foundation’s FLAG project filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) action, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking release of information from the FBI on its DCS-3000 and Red Hook tools. DCS-3000 and Red Hook appear to be successors to the FBI’s less politically correctly named Carnivore program, which the agency began in 2000.

According to the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) report entitled “The Implementation of the Communications Assistance of Law Enforcement Act” (the CALEA report), the FBI has spent nearly $10 million to develop DCS-3000. “The FBI developed the system as an interim solution to intercept personal communications services delivered via emerging digital technologies used by wireless carriers in advance of any CALEA solutions being deployed. Law enforcement continues to utilize this technology as carriers continue to introduce new features and services.” (CALEA report, Appendix VIII.) The CALEA report also discloses that “[t]he FBI has spent over $1.5 million to develop [the Red Hook] system to collect voice and data calls and then process and display the intercepted information in the absence of a CALEA solution.” Id.

Moving with unprecedented lightning speed, the FCC has moved on multiple fronts to crack down on apparent violations of the agency Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) rules, which seek to protect the privacy of telephone subscribers by restricting a carrier's ability to use or disclose subscribers' personal telephone records,

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report to Congress entitled Effectiveness and Enforcement of the CAN-SPAM Act to fulfill the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act’s (CAN-SPAM Act) mandate to provide a detailed analysis of its effectiveness and enforcement, and the need—if any—for legislative revisions.

The FCC issued an Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to implement the Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005 as a first step toward realization of Congress‚Äôs reversal of an FCC decision to eliminate the ‚Äúestablished busi¬?ness relationship, or ‚ÄúEBR‚Äù exemption to the ban on unsolicited commercial faxes, an FCC initiative critics said would undermine, among other things, the vitality of faxes as a business-to-business tool and as a means for trade associations to communicate with members.

In 2004, Minnesota enacted statutory provisions (Minn. Stat., § 325F.695) which in part required wireless carriers to notify customers in writing 60 days in advance of any proposed “substantive change" in the contract.

On Nov. 8, 2005, CTIA announced a voluntary pledge by the major wireless carriers to adhere to new “Wireless Content Guidelines.” Participating carriers have agreed to separate content such as video clips, ring tones and other audio into two categories.

The FCC has announced that expanded “Truth-in Billing” requirements for wireline and wireless telecom carriers, adopted in March 2005, have become effective.

In May 2004, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) adopted General Order 168 (GO 168) setting forth a broad new set of consumer protection rules for both wireline and wireless carriers (D.04-05-057).

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies component of the National Academy of Science, which was created by the federal government to advise on scientific and technological matters, has published Food and Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? to culminate a study sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at Congress’ request.

New laws have taken effect in Utah and Michigan that prohibit sending messages, if they advertise or link to goods or services that are illegal for a minor to buy or possess, to email and instant message addressees, fax and wireless phone numbers, and other “contact points” that appear on a “child protection registry” maintained by the state.

The FCC continues to step up its enforcement efforts against service providers who do not make timely and appropriate contributions into the federal Universal Service Fund (USF), or to comply with FCC provider registration and filing requirements that establish whether and to what extent the provider is required to make USF contributions.

The FCC’s deadline for PSTN-interconnected VoIP providers to demonstrate full compliance with the Commission’s new rules mandating that they provide enhanced E911 to all new and existing subscribers came and went on Nov. 28, 2005.