A major cell phone trade group objected to a proposal that would force broadband Internet providers to rewire their networks to support easy wiretapping by police.
The proposal, from the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, is "expressly exempted from the law" and puts an unfair burden on broadband subscribers to fund any network overhaul, according to a regulatory filing by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), whose members include the nation"s top cell phone service providers.
Last month, the three law enforcement agencies asked the Federal Communications Commission to require all broadband service providers to come under the jurisdiction of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA. That law requires telecommunications carriers to rewire their networks to government specifications to provide police with guaranteed access for wiretaps.