CALEA – Providers of VoIP Must Comply with CALEA

The Federal Communications Commission recently released a final rule requiring CALEA compliance for all VoIP providers. Compliance must be accomplished May 18, 2007. CALEA – or the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act – is a long standing Act that requires providers of telephone service to make their networks accessible to law enforcement for surveillance activities. While CALEA is quite complex, at base telecom providers must design their networks in such a way so that it is not extremely difficult for law enforcement to attach monitoring devices to the network. This new rule is important for companies who must either comply with CALEA on their “home grown” VoIP services, or ensure that outsourced providers are complaint. Federal Register Notice