Congress enacted the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (“CALEA”) in 1994, requiring telecommunications service providers to assist law enforcement agencies in executing electronic surveillance, according to a court order or other lawful authorization. Since 2006, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has extended the requirements of CALEA to service providers of two-way interconnected VoIP and […]
This is a busy time for mobile operators, both large and small. The march toward 5G deployment is underway for most large mobile operators while small and mid-size operators are pushing toward the deployment of IP Multimedia Systems (IMS) for Voice over LTE (VoLTE) operation. VoLTE allows operators to phase out 3G voice service by […]
The formation of an international pandemic contact tracing standards group was announced yesterday. Designated E4P, it is being established as an open public-private initiative under ETSI to “develop a framework and consistent set of specifications for proximity tracing systems, to enable the development of applications and platforms, and to facilitate international interoperability” that also provide for privacy […]
With nearly every country in the world locked down due to COVID-19 and their borders essentially closed, the roaming volumes have dropped significantly. Yet even with the effects of the pandemic, roaming is expected to generate approximately $1 trillion dollars globally in 2020, according to Statistica. Not an insignificant amount of revenue. Mobile operators are […]
A LI standards colleague brought to our attention that without most people realizing it, the FCC had on its own created a new CALEA rulemaking proceeding with a proposed CALEA technical standard. CALEA as you probably know is the 1994 law in the U.S. that requires communication providers to have the technical capacity to provide […]
This past month on 03-06 March, the global industry sub-group that exists at the center of 5G security met virtually. It is known as SA3 within the 3GPP organization, and it met over a period of five days to deal with some of the most important 5G security requirements. 3GPP is a “partnership” created among […]
The Secure 5G and Beyond Act of 2020 has been submitted by the U.S. Congress to the White House for signing into law. It has been sitting there for several days now, but there are obviously more important developments demanding attention than a law compelling the Executive Branch to develop a 5G security strategy within 180 days […]
Setting the stage Every four years — as it has done for nearly a hundred years — the ITU-T as the world’s only global intergovernmental standards body for all telecommunication, invites its 196 sovereign state members to a meeting where they examine their work and set the stage for the next four years. There is […]
Most of us, when we go to a website and see the little lock at the top of the browser, don’t think twice and trust that we are communicating with the right company or organization. However, this is no longer the case because of a rather radical development that has largely occurred without notice or […]
One of the most embarrassing and pernicious realities in the world of cybersecurity is the stark reality that some industry cybersecurity standards practices are themselves cyber threats. How so? Most industry and intergovernmental standards bodies serve as means for assembling the constantly evolving collective knowledge of participant experts and package the resulting specifications and best […]
