The conference “Actual issues of implementing the SORM on telecommunication networks of Russia” (SORM-2015) was held on November 24, 2015 in Moscow, Russia.
At this conference the issues of interaction between telecommunications companies, telecommunications operators and special services were discussed. The reason – the launch of new technologies VoLTE and VoWiFi to make VoIP communications in 4G and Wi-Fi networks.
The problem is that now the intelligence agencies have specific requirements for the system of interaction of operators with special services. But these requirements are technically obsolete, and prevent introduction of new technologies. Now the intelligence agencies access the user’s mobile operators, as well as to the traffic of subscribers through the System operational search activities (SORM).There are now two systems: SORM-1 (established in 1995 to intercept telephone conversations) and SORM-2 (established in 2000 and is used for Internet traffic interception).
There are a lot of solutions for connecting to the network VoLTE-SORM. The company has developed a system of “MFI Soft”. But the solutions have problems – for intercepting calls the subscribers will still have to use SORM-1 system. The quality of received calls is very low (the width of the channel is low in this case – only 64 kbit/s). Video calls – the image will be recoded with significant loss of quality. The solution will transfer voice traffic over fast channels SORM-2. However, in this case, the intelligence agencies won’t be able to track location of the subscriber.
Thus, the operator can automatically or manually switch LTE-network 3G. As a result, the subscriber location remains unknown. You can even transfer all data flows over fiber, but this requires some change in laws and regulations, said Alexei Makarov, the head of “Telecom-zashita,” SORM solutions provider. As for VoWiFi the situation is even more difficult. The fact is that the subscriber can switch from LTE into 3G (handover). It means the location will be quite difficult to determine. The result of all these problems is to delay the deployment of VoWiFi and VoLTE in Russia. VoLTE has launched “VimpelCom” only in Russia
