Appeals court orders new CALEA hearing

A federal appeals court has ordered another round of hearings about whether VoIP carriers need to heed CALEA--the law that lets law enforcement listen into phone conversations. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit, which falls one level below the Supreme Court, had ruled in June that the FCC was within its authority to order VoIP carriers to comply with the law. But that same court has now asked to hear arguments about whether educational institutions or VoIP services that don't connect to the PSTN need to comply. No date has been set for the new hearings. Some experts say that forcing VoIP carriers to follow CALEA would present fundamental network security problems.

For more information about the CALEA rehearing:
- read this article on TelecomWeb (free registration required).