Christopher L. Morrow wrote:
shiny side out one hopes? Seriously though, I'm not a telco/phone person, but I was once told that the phone switch equipment does the tap 'automagically' to special ds-1 facilities inn LEA-land... which means the cell phone can be wrapped in anything you'd like. If the calls get completed a copy is silently made to the right folks (not the nsa, they aren't LEA).
At least from the experiences I've indirectly gained, if the call terminates on a switch with tap gear, it's similar to a SPAN port. Not only does the recipient's phone ring, but the magic phone rings and outputs the information from both sides of the call, while inputting nothing. The federal folks spent big money to have the switch manufacturers implement the software functionality, but the telcos do have to acquire the equipment (or rights to it via contract). It was funny watching Siemens try to tell our employee (former Siemens employee, and experienced in CALEA) that we'd have to buy the feature...it was less than an hour before they were calling back asking to be able to add the feature. :) pt