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MetaSwitch Complies with Recent FCC VoIP Orders
By TED GLANZER
TMCnet Communications and Broadband Columnist
The FCC last week ordered interconnected voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) providers to accommodate legal wiretaps pursuant to the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).
This follows the FCC's June 3 order, which required VoIP carriers to provide E911 calling capabilities to all subscribers. The most recent order has left many vendors and carriers scrambling to figure out how to comply with the E911 and CALEA requirements.
MetaSwitch, however, was not among them. Indeed, the soft switch company confirmed in a press release yesterday that over 135 MetaSwitch systems that are currently deployed in the field already support CALEA and E911 call routing features for both legacy and next-generation subscribers.
MetaSwitch's foresight lies within the company's heritage, Vice President of Marketing Andy Randall told TMCnet in an interview today.
"Having already served legacy carriers, it was only natural to add [E911 and CALEA] features to VoIP," Randall said.
To be sure, there were a "few special things" that needed to be done on the IP side. For example, to enable law enforcement agencies to intercept calls, MetaSwitch provides access to the media path in addition to the signal path.
According to a prepared statement, MetaSwitch's implementation has been reviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), ensuring that it meets the requirement for "safe harbor" under the CALEA regulations.
"It is an area that is continuing to evolve to make packet interception less intrusive than bringing it back to the media gateway," Randall said. "Those aren't there, yet. The key for carriers is to show the FCC that they are doing all that they can [to comply]."
Judging by the statements made by company executives, MetaSwitch will continue to develop offerings that comply with regulatory requirements.
"As one of the leading providers of carrier class next generation telephony equipment, MetaSwitch takes seriously its responsibility to ensure that its customers are able to comply with all applicable regulations," John Lazar, MetaSwitch CEO, said in a prepared statement.
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Ted Glanzer is assistant editor for TMCnet. For more articles by Ted Glanzer, please visit:
http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100033&nm=Ted%20Gl
anzer
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