Regulation – FCC Requires VOIP Providers to Comply with CALEA

The FCC recently released a regulation requiring pure VOIP providers, such as Vonage, to meet the technical wiretapping standards set out in CALEA. CALEA, long a staple of telecom compliance efforts, sets out very detailed and precise standards which must be incorporated into telecom equipment to allow law enforcement to collect information through wiretaps. CALEA contains an exception for “information services.” This exception was thought to apply to VOIP providers. The FCC’s decision is troubling for Internet companies since the distinction between traditional telephony and information service providers is made in a number of other federal statutes, including the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which provides significant protection for information service providers.

Wired Article

FCC press release

Discussion of the CDA