VOIP Info – VoIP And The US Government (Part 2)
The FCC has initiated two major moves of concern to all VoIP technological advances everywhere. The first concerns CALEA and the other is in regards to Enhanced 911.
CALEA stands for Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. CALEA would enable law enforcement to issue taps on VoIP data the same as they do with PSTN. This is an interesting area, because VoIP technology has now opened the door, through CALEA, to monitor other forms of Packet Switching networks. If VoIP service providers can be called upon for tap and trace procedures, and if it doesn’t matter if the communications were PC to PC, then that would extend to Instant Messaging services, gamers, and the like. When it comes to the area of the FBI, CALEA, and tapping VoIP there are some major issues to consider. First, the government rulings have been established for decades regarding Circuit Switched technology, by transferring these rules to VoIP (packet switch) we are redefining the nature of VoIP.