Law changes in store to widen telephone taps

By Rob Hosking

Friday 2nd November 2001

Paul Swain

The government this week used the blanket of post-September 11 security concerns to re-announce changes to telecommunications law that have been in the works since 1998.

Prime Minister Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Phil Goff earlier this week announced a raft of measures to tighten up New Zealand's security against terrorism.

Among them is changes to telecommunications law, which would be introduced to the House early next year, Mr Goff said.

However, he would not be drawn on details of the changes, except to say security concerns would be balanced against civil liberty issues.

The telecommunications changes have in fact been discussed since the days of the last government, and involve making new networks, such as those of mobile network provider Vodafone, technologically able to be intercepted by government agencies.

Negotiations have been under way for at least three years, with one of the issues being who would pay for the necessary changes to the networks.

Vodafone's digital GSM network technology means the authorities are unable to tap the mobile networks' phones. Not only does the company have to install new equipment but the issue also requires a law change.

As The National Business Review reported earlier this year, Ministry of Economic Development officials wanted the company to pay for the changes, which the company estimated in 1998 would cost up to $1.1 million, with ongoing costs of up to $600,000.

The last minister, National's Maurice Williamson, and the current one, Labour's Paul Swain, have opposed the networks being charged with the cost, and the issue has now been settled in the networks' favour. Telecom earlier reached an agreement with the police, with an arrangement for compensation for costs from the police budget.

Between 30 to 40 warrants a year are issued to police to tap telephones. Until 1998 the power to do so was limited to suspected drug crimes, but this has been extended to murder and other violent crime.

Telecom has already altered its network after negotiations with the police, including an agreement with the police to fund some of those changes.

That included a payment for making the changes - the amount was blocked out in the released papers - plus ongoing recompense for each interception made. "These payments vary from hundreds of dollars to many thousands of dollars, according to actual costs."

BellSouth - since bought by Vodafone - estimated the cost of modifying its mobile phone network to be between $200,000 and $1.1 million, with costs of $200,000-600,000.

That was in 1998, and a more recent cabinet paper, from September last year, noted that although agreement had been reached with Vodafone, there had been "considerable delays in the negotiations."

"As more telecommunications service providers enter the New Zealand market, and telecommunications technology becomes more sophisticated, negotiations by the police on an individual basis will become less practicable."

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