Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act, 2002 (Act 70 of 2002)Directives in Respect of Different Categories of Telecommunications Service Providers made in terms of The Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act, 2002 (Act No. 70 of 2002)Schedule B : Directive for Mobile Cellular Operators in terms of Section 30(7)(a) read with Section 30(2) of the Regulation of Interception of Communications Information Act, 2002 (Act No. 70 of 2002)Part 2: Interception of Indirect Communications7. Technical and functional requirements in respect of interception |
| 7.1 | The technical handover interfaces shall provide the results of interception for the entire duration of the interception measure. |
| 7.2 | The configuration of the handover interface shall enable that it provides the results of interception. |
| 7.3 | The configuration of the handover interface shall enable that the quality of service of the telecommunications traffic provided at the handover interface is not inferior to that offered to the target service for each particular call. |
| 7.4 | The configuration of the handover interface shall be such that the routing to the IC of the result of interception provided at the interface can be implemented with industry standard transmission paths, protocols and coding principles. |
| 7.5 | Each interception target shall be uniquely associated with a single instance of the handover interface. (This could be achieved by separate channels of the use of identifiers). |
| 7.6 | The correlation between the indirect communication and communication-related information shall be unique. |
| 7.7 | The format for routing the intercepted indirect communications to the IC shall be an industry standard format. |
| 7.8 | MCOs must be able to route the intercepted indirect communications to the IC via fixed or switched connections. |
| 7.9 | The content of an indirect communication must (unless expressly specified in the direction or request) be provided across the handover interface in one of the formats outlined below— |
| (a) | the content of communication relating to two or more communicating parties is placed in a single telecommunications channel; |
| (b) | the content of communications relating to two communicating parties is placed in two separate telecommunications channels; |
| (c) | other configurations appropriate to the target service concerned. |
| 7.10 | The IC will be informed of— |
| (a) | the activation of an intercept measure; |
| (b) | the deactivation of the intercept measure; |
| (c) | any change of the intercept measure; and |
| (d) | the temporary unavailability of the intercept measure due to a fault on the telecommunication system of the MCO. |
| 7.11 | Each MCO shall reasonably ensure that the configuration of the telecommunication system is such that it can implement and operate each interception measure with no or the minimum involvement of third parties. |
| 7.12 | Where a MCO makes use of any other telecommunication service provider’s telecommunication system, both that MCO and that other telecommunication service provider must co-operate in the provision of interception, if required. |
| 7.13 | A MCO must reasonably ensure that— |
| (a) | any telecommunication service provider involved in the provision of interception facilities is given no more information relating to operational activities than is strictly necessary to allow authorised target services to be intercepted; and |
| (b) | any telecommunication service provider involved in the co-operative provision of interception facilities is given no more information relating to operational activities than is strictly necessary to allow authorised target services to be intercepted. |
| 7.14 | When duplication and routing to the IC of the signals of an indirect communication is, in exceptional cases, not possible the remainder of the results of interception shall nevertheless be duplicated and routed to the IC. |
| 7.15 | Where the special properties of a given telecommunication service, and the justified requirements of the applicant, necessitate the use of various identifying characteristics for determination of the indirect communications of the target services to be intercepted, the MCO shall ensure that the indirect communications can be intercepted on the basis of these characteristics, Identifying characteristics include, but are not limited to, the MSJSDN, IMEI and IMSl numbers. |
| 7.16 | In each case the characteristics shall be identifiable without unreasonable effort and shall be such that they allow clear identification of the interception target. |
| 7.17 | The MCO shall ensure that more than one interception measure can be operated simultaneously for one and the same interception target. Multiple interceptions may be required for a single interception target to allow monitoring by more than one applicant. |
| 7.18 | If multiple interceptions are active, a MCO shall take reasonable precautions to safeguard the identities of the law enforcement agencies and ensure the confidentiality of the investigations. |
| 7.19 | The multiple interception measures may require different information according to different lawful directions or requests. |
| 7.20 | The MCO mentioned in Column 1 of Table 1 must ensure that it can initially simultaneously intercept the indirect communications of the number of customers mentioned opposite to that MCO in Column 2 of Table 1 at any given time in its telecommunications system and all the results of interception routed to the IC. |
Table 1 |
|
Column 1 |
Column 2 |
Cell C (Pty) Ltd. |
60 |
Mobile Telephone networks (Pty) Ltd. |
120 |
Vodacom (Pty) Ltd. |
240 |
|
|
Any other MCO |
1 for every 25 000 customers |
| 7.21 | The arrangements made in a telecommunication system for the technical implementation of interception measures shall be set up and configured so as to enable the identification and elimination, without undue delay, of bottlenecks and potential bottlenecks in a regional or functional part of that system when several interception measures are operated simultaneously. |
| 7.22 | Supplementary to the provisions of paragraph 7.21, above, MCOs shall monitor their capacity in respect of simultaneous interceptions and shall be able to upgrade any regional or functional part of their telecommunication system within a reasonable period of time. |