What are push-to-talk services? And why should they be subject to CALEA?  And why should we care?

From what I understand, push-to-talk are services offered (at the moment) by cellphone companies that allow you to communicate with a group immediately by pushing a button on your phone.  It's like walkie-talkie communication.  But there's no requirement that the underlying carrier be a cellphone company; you could do this over WiFi on the internet. 

These services are just like instant messaging, with voice added in.  The services don't use the traditional telephone system or traditional phone numbers (necessarily).  Instead, they use lists of devices -- like a buddy list -- to allow people to talk to one another.  They're half-duplex, which means only one person can talk at a time. 

And yet, in the Declaratory Ruling that the FCC issued on August 9, it said that commercial wireless push-to-talk services are subject to CALEA: "CMRS [commercial mobile radio service] carrier offerings of push-to-talk service that are offered in conjunction with interconnected service to the PSTN, but may use different technologies, are subject to CALEA requirements."

Why is this interesting?  Because CALEA has an express carveout for "information services," and something that doesn't connect to the traditional telephone network and doesn't use traditional phone numbers -- but does manipulate data -- would seem to be an information service.  Email, specifically, is an information service. 

How does the Commission avoid this carveout?  By saying that CMRS carriers who offer push-to-talk must by definition be doing so "in conjunction with interconnected service to the PSTN," even if they're only using packet-mode technologies for the service.

Now, this all seems like very inside baseball.  But it's important.  Deciding this push-to-talk element means that the Commission has already made the determination that things that don't connect to the traditional telephone system or use phone numbers are nonetheless subject to regulatory control. 

 There really isn't much of a difference between push-to-talk and instant messaging, except that the former is offered by cell companies who are happy to comply with CALEA (including Verizon), and the latter is offered by zillions of companies who are probably not closely following what the FCC is doing.