Representative EDWARDS. Thank you very much, Mr. Neel. The next member of the panel to testify is Thomas E. Wheeler. Mr. Wheeler is President of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. You may proceed, Mr. Wheeler. STATEMENT OF THOMAS E. WHEELER, PRESIDENT, CELLULAR TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION Mr. WHEELER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate the opportunity to be here before you today, particularly because we were kind of the poster child of the last hearing when everybody was talking about cellular as the example of some of the new telecommunications technologies that require some of the changes we are talking about today. One retrospective on that hearing. It is interesting to note that by the FBI's own estimate, the cellular industry, which today serves approximately 5 percent of the population, was responsible for 25 percent of the wiretaps in 1993. I just put that forward as a physical manifestation of our commitment to addressing the issues of court-authorized surveillance and our recognition of our responsibility to provide both the capability and the capacity to do that. This legislation, as everybody else has previously said, is a significant improvement over the previous draft, and again, cudos need to be extended to the staffs of these committees, to the FBI, and to the other industries involved. There are four principal wireless-related issues in the current draft of the legislation, and let me just address those quickly. One is that the bill outlaws the ability to steal someone else's electronic code in order to impersonate another user of the wireless service. We have all heard stories about people with humongous cellular bills because somebody had snatched their electronic code out of the air, cloned that into another phone, and was charging phone calls to Colombia or wherever onto their phone. Amazingly, that is not an illegal act. This bill makes it so. That is very significant, because not only is this a crime against consumers and against the providers of wireless services, but also if you have a situation where there is floating around out there multiple users of the same electronic serial numbers, you don't know who you are tapping. You have three or four or five options and they say, hello, I am this one person, but they may not really be. So that change in the law not only helps protect consumers but also is a linchpin into making wireless court-authorized surveillance possible. The second provision in the bill is the establishment of requirements and procedures for wiretaps in a wireless environment. This deals with the two C's, if you will, capability and capacity. First, you have to have the capability technically to be able to get the desired information. There is underway right now, through an organization called the Electronic Communications Service Providers Committee, joint efforts of carriers, law enforcement, and manufacturers to come up with the standards for those kinds of technical capabilities. This bill recognizes that kind of process and pro By the service of this subpana upon you by Special Agent who is authorized to serve in you are hereby commandes and a betore. Laich Shoe Drug Enforcement Administration to give testimony and to bring with you and produce for examination the following books, records, and papers at the time and pisos hereinafter set forth: 1. REGARDING THE IDENTITY OF PUBLISHED AND UNLISTED RESIDENTIAL AND BUSINESS TELEPHONES, allure to comply with this subpene will render you liable to proceedings in the district court of the United States to enforce obedience to the requirements of this subpena, and to punish default er diesbedience. |