Sprint fined $16m for sticking it to The Man: Telco 'overcharged' Feds for phone wiretaps

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/10/sprint_fined_doj_wiretaps/


Sprint has agreed to pay a $15.5m fine after it was accused of overcharging the Feds when carrying out court-ordered wiretaps.


The US Department of Justice (DoJ) claimed the American telco had gouged cops and g-men between 2007 and 2010: Sprint allegedly over-billed them by at least $21m for setting up wiretaps to record phone conversations, pen registers (devices that record all numbers called from a telephone line) and trap devices (which log incoming number phones to a telephone line).


According to the DoJ, Sprint not only charged agents for performing the wiretaps, but also tried to recoup the costs of having to build a network enabling those calls to be wiretapped.


The row dates back to 1994, when US Congress enacted the Communications Assistance in Law Enforcement Act, a law requiring carriers to upgrade their networks to allow law enforcement agencies to snoop on calls and gather subscriber logs and conversation records.