Louisville, Colorado, June 12, 2007—Today CableLabs issued its Cable Broadband Intercept Specification (CBIS) to assist cable operators and law enforcement agencies in meeting legal mandates under the federal Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). CBIS is designed to be a “safe harbor” under CALEA. Cable operators who are compliant with CBIS are, therefore, deemed to be CALEA compliant.

“With this broadband CALEA safe harbor specification, CableLabs is enabling cable service providers to assist law enforcement in its surveillance while ensuring subscriber privacy and security under the CALEA mandate,” said CableLabs President and CEO Dr. Richard R. Green.

Under CALEA, if a voice or broadband provider is not in compliance with the law, the provider could be subject to a daily fine of $10,000 until compliance is reached. CALEA, enacted in 1994, mandates that providers of communications services, which now include VoIP and broadband services, be able to isolate, pursuant to a court order or other lawful authorization, the content of a communication as well as call identifying information.

The CableLabs CBIS initiative is cable's second CALEA safe harbor. In July 2004, CableLabs issued a similar specification creating a safe harbor for PacketCable™ digital voice. This latest broadband surveillance effort began after the Federal Communications Commission May 2006 order that broadband service providers comply with the CALEA mandate.

About CableLabs: Cable Television Laboratories (www.cablelabs.com) was founded in 1988 by members of the cable television industry. A non-profit research and development consortium, CableLabs delivers innovations that enable cable operators to be the providers of choice in their markets. Cable operators from around the world are members. CableLabs maintains web sites at www.cablelabs.com; www.packetcable.com; www.cablemodem.com; www.cablenet.org, and www.opencable.com.

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