Additional information
General information about technical implementation
- Basic principle
- Technical and organisational arrangements by telecommunications systems operators
- Obligated operators
- Service provider obligations
- Demonstration to the Federal Network Agency
- Technical directive
Basic principle
Legal provisions require that anyone commercially providing or assisting in the commercial provision of telecommunications services is obliged to enable the authorised bodies to intercept and record telecommunications when a written judicial order to this effect is received.
Technical and organisational arrangements by telecommunications systems operators
Whether and to which extent telecommunications companies need to make arrangements for the implementation of interception measures is set forth in § 110 of the Telecommunications Act - TKG and the Telcommunications Interception Ordinance - TKÜV.
Obligated operators
Under § 110 of the TKG , the operator of a telecommunications system by means of which publicly available telecommunications services are provided must, inter alia, from the time of beginning operation, at his own expense, provide technical facilities with which to implement telecommunications interception measures provided for by law and make organisational arrangements for the implementation, without undue delay, of the measures.
However, the TKÜV exempts many of the operators from the obligation to implement measures if the telecommunications system
- is a telecommunications network to which there are no direct telecommunications connections (carrier network),
NB:
However, if long-distance carriers additionally offer telecommunications services by means of virtual codes such as
- personal number - (0) 700
- free telephone services - (0) 800
- premium rate services - (0) 900
- cardphone services (e.g. VCC, CCC)
- storage facilities in the network (e.g. UMS / VMS, e-mail Server),
then in principle the arrangements for the technical implementation of interception measures need to be made for these services.
- is a network node serving interconnection with the internet (internet access provider) and composed of transmission lines not serving direct subscriber-related access to the internet,
NB:
Hence internet access, e.g. via DSL, cable modem, fixed line or WLAN, basically is not exempted from the obligation.
serves the distribution of broadcasting and other services destined for the public, for the retrieval of generally accessible information or for the transmission of measurement values, non-individualised data, distress and emergency calls or information on maritime and air transport security and ease,
- does not have more than ten thousand telecommunications connections or is one in which not more than ten thousand other parties have been given the right of use.
These exceptional provisons grant exemption from the obligation to make technical and organisational arrangements but not from the obligation to enable telecommunications interception on the basis of a judicial order.
Service provider obligations
Under § 110 of the TKG, service providers offering publicly available telecommunications services without themselves operating a telecommunications system to do so must, when choosing the operator of the telecommunications system to be used for doing so, make certain that the latter can carry out judicial orders relating to telecommunications interception in line with regulations and notify the Federal Network Agency without undue delay after beginning to provide service of, inter alia, the party by whom the judicial intercept orders concerning his subscribers are carried out.
Demonstration to the Federal Network Agency
The providers obliged to make arrangements must demonstrate to the Federal Network Agency, at no charge, that the technical facilities and organisational arrangements are compliant with the provisions in the TKÜV and the Technical Directive. To this end, they must, without undue delay but not later than one month after beginning operation, send to the Federal Network Agency the requisite documents and agree a date for verification.
The manufacturers or suppliers of technical facilities for the implementation of interception measures can have these facilities tested by the Federal Network Agency within a type approval test involving interworking with specific telecommunications systems. The Agency will then take the test results into account as part of the evidence to be supplied by the operators.
Technical directive
Some of the technical details needed to ensure a complete recording of the telecommunications to be intercepted and for the provision of information as well as for the design of the point of handover to the authorised bodies are laid down in technical directive TR TKÜV on the Implementation of Legal Measures for Telecommuniacations Interception and for Requests for Information on Traffic Data. This directive mainly contains regulations for the circuit-switched networks (PSTN, ISDN, GSM), for VoIP and other multimedia services, for GPRS, UMTS, e-mail and for the internet access service. For other telecommunications technologies the technical design of the handover point has to be discussed with the Federal Network Agency.
The TR TKÜV also describes a detailed procedure for the protection of the IP-based handover point (Annex A.2).
Any additions or adaptations of the technical directive to new requirements are drawn up by the Federal Network Agency in consultation with the authorised bodies and in coorporation with associations and manufacturers. Existing standards and the latest technological state-of-the-art are always taken into consideration. At present TR TKÜV version 6.1 applies.
All documents mentioned can be downloaded.