In 1994 an explosion of new communication technologies (cell phones, the internet, distributed networks, roaming, faxes et al.) were placing a technological burden on law enforcement to do a job they no longer had enough expertise or resources to handle; so they placed a request for help, and congress responded by creating and passing the CALEA legislation.
CALEA (The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) is a law passed in 1994 requiring service providers to assist law enforcement, in a uniform, standards-based way, with the process of intercepting (wiretapping) the communications of bad guys.
May 14, 2007. This was the date that all broadband service providers and interconnected VoIP providers must have had their networks CALEA compliant.
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