FSB in action: voice over 4G and Wi-Fi networks in Russia cannot be transmitted yet due to outdated standards of special services

FSB building (Source: Cnews)

On November 24, the All-Russian Conference “Actual Issues of SORM Implementation on Russia's Telecommunication Networks” (SORM-2015) was held in Moscow. At this conference, in particular, problems of interaction of telecommunication companies, communication operators, and special services were discussed. The reason is the launch of new VoLTE and VoWiFi technologies that allow VoIP communications in 4G and Wi-Fi networks. The problem lies in the fact that now the security services have certain requirements for the system of interaction of communication operators with the security services. But these requirements are outdated technically, and prevent the introduction of new technologies, writes Cnews.

Now the special services have access to the negotiations of subscribers of telecom operators, as well as to the traffic of subscribers through the System of operational search activities (SORM). There are now two such systems: SORM-1 (created in 1995 to intercept telephone conversations) and SORM-2 (created in 2000, and used to intercept Internet traffic).


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Already there are solutions for connecting VoLTE-network to SORM. The company MFI-Soft has developed such a system. But the solution has problems - the fact is that the SORM-1 system will still be used to intercept the conversations of subscribers. And the quality of the received calls will be very low (the width of the channel is small in this case - only 64 Kbps). About video calls and say nothing - the image will be recoded with significant loss of quality.



The solution may be the transmission of voice traffic over faster SORM-2 channels. However, in this case, the special services will have problems with determining the coordinates of the location of the subscriber. Thus, the subscriber of the service provider can automatically or manually switch from the LTE network to 3G. As a result, the subscriber’s coordinates will remain unknown. You can still transmit all data streams over optical fiber, but this requires a change in some laws and regulations, said Aleksey Makarov, head of Telecom Protection , a supplier of SORM solutions.

As for VoWiFi, an even more difficult situation arises for the special services. The fact is that the subscriber, making calls through the Wi-Fi networks available to him, becomes unavailable for monitoring. Rather, its location will be quite difficult to determine.

The result of all these problems is the delay in deploying VoWiFi and VoLTE in Russia. Now VoLTE works only with VimpelCom. The company was able to obtain a separate permit from the FSB.