◆ SpookStack

communications service providers maintain sensitive records about their customers’ private communications, yet these new carriers have not been made subject to the rules that have traditionally governed CPNI.”’ In addition, as carriers covered by the Commission’s existing rules have increasingly moved away from classic billing models, in which charges are itemized and billed by type of service, to non-measured, bundled, and flat-rate service plans, some carriers have claimed that call records under such new plans are not covered by Section 42.6 because they are not "toll records." Therefore, these carriers have argued that no records need be retained. This has significantly diminished the availability of call records that were historically made available to law enforcement, pursuant to lawful process, as traditional "billing records” under the Commission's rules. While it is recognized that changes in the communications industry over the past decade have resulted in changes in the record retention practices of such providers, it must also be acknowledged that the nature and immediacy of the threat confronting public safety and national security has significantly changed and evolved such that the need lawfully to access these critical records has increased, not diminished. As a consequence of these changes, the Departments belteve it is necessary to re- exaniine the Commission’s existing rules which no longer fulfill critical public satety or national security needs in three key respects: 1) the scope of cartiers and providers ad id. To the extent that the Notice requests comment on whether any requirements that the Commission might adopt in the present rulemaking should extend to VoIP or other IP-enabled service providers, the Departments refer to their May 28, 2004 comments on this subject.