...

That is IF you even get an order. The brunt of the work is at the tier1's. This is like DDOS. LEC's have to do it, but they frequently misinterpret the requirements and scale and end up spending money they never had to. Misinterpretation is a big problem for CALEA, technically speaking.

First time anyone has every accused tier 1's of spending money they didn't need too.

Let me lower the reading comprehension level for you. I said that tier1's bear the brunt of the orders, and insinuated that tier2's get less orders. They do. Many midwest/rural CLEC's get NO orders. They must still be compliant.

Folks may find it useful to review

[ SNIP ] The place to get the authoritative word is direct from the AskCALEA folks here: http://www.askcalea.net/ - and of course you can discuss with your telecom lawyers. You may be confusing terminology though, which is understandable. I can't find a government official calling defining the applicability of the law a "wish list" so I'll leave that to the gentle readers to determine. -M<