Sup­ple­men­tary in­for­ma­tion

• eneral principles
• Technical and organisational arrangements by telecommunications system operators
• Operators under obligation
• Explanatory notes
• Service providers' obligations
• Demonstration of compliance to the Bundesnetzagentur
• Technical Directive TR TKÜV

eneral principles

Under the statutory provisions, anyone providing or assisting in providing telecommunications services in a business capacity must enable the authorised organisations to intercept and record telecommunications, when ordered in writing to do so.

Technical and organisational arrangements by telecommunications system operators

Section 110 of the Telecommunications Act (TKG) and the Telecommunications Interception Ordinance (TKÜV) set out whether and to what extent telecommunications companies must make arrangements for implementing intercepts.

Operators under obligation

One of the obligations imposed by section 110 TKG on operators of telecommunications systems used to provide publicly available telecommunications services is for them to have technical equipment for implementing statutory telecommunications interception measures and to make organisational arrangements for implementing the measures without undue delay, at their own expense and from the time they begin operation.

Under the TKÜV, however, many operators – those whose telecommunications system is a telecommunications network without any subscriber lines (core network) – are exempted from this obligation.

Explanatory notes

No arrangements need to be made for telecommunications systems within the meaning of section 3(1) TKÜV if the telecommunications system:

1. is a telecommunications network that interconnects access networks and has no direct telecommunications connections;
2. is a network node used for interconnection with the internet;
3. is composed of transmission lines, unless the lines are used for direct subscriber-related access to the internet;
4. is used solely for the distribution of broadcasting and other services destined for the public, for the retrieval of generally accessible information or for the transmission of measurement values, non-individualised data, distress and emergency calls or information for maritime and air transport security and ease;
5. is not connected with more than 10,000 subscribers or other end-users; or
6. is used solely to provide email services or non-identifier-related internet access services via a wireless local area network (WLAN) and is not connected with more than 100,000 subscribers or other end-users.

Nos 1 and 5 above do not apply to network nodes that are used as switches between publicly available telephone services and international networks. Nos 1 and 2 above do not apply with respect to arrangements to fulfil the obligation arising from section 110(1) sentence 1 para 1a TKG.

Service providers' obligations

Under section 110 TKG, service providers offering publicly available telecommunications services without themselves operating a telecommunications system must, when choosing an operator for the telecommunications system to be used for their service offering, make sure that the operator can carry out judicial intercept orders in compliance with the regulations and, without undue delay after they begin to provide their services, must inform the Bundesnetzagentur who will carry out judicial intercept orders relating to their subscribers.

Demonstration of compliance to the Bundesnetzagentur

Operators under obligation must demonstrate to the Bundesnetzagentur, at no charge, that their technical equipment and organisational arrangements are compliant with the provisions of the TKÜV and the Technical Directive relating to the Telecommunications Interception Ordinance (TR TKÜV). They must submit the necessary documentation to the Bundesnetzagentur and arrange a date for demonstrating and verifying compliance without undue delay and no later than one month after they begin operation.

Manufacturers or distributors of technical equipment for implementing intercepts can have the Bundesnetzagentur verify compliance by testing the interworking of a type sample with certain telecommunications systems. The Bundesnetzagentur takes account of the type sample test results when verifying compliance by the operators..

Technical Directive TR TKÜV

The Technical Directive – TR TKÜV – lays down the technical requirements to guarantee a full record of telecommunications intercepts, for the provision of information and for the configuration of handover points to the authorised organisations. It essentially sets out the requirements for the PSTN (public switched telephone network), ISDN (integrated services digital network), GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), VoIP (voice over internet protocol) and other multimedia services, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), email services and internet access services.

The technical configuration of handover points for other telecommunications technologies must be agreed upon with the Bundesnetzagentur.
In addition, TR TKÜV Part A Annex A.2 contains a detailed procedure aimed at protecting the IP-based handover point.

Additions or changes to the TR TKÜV to bring it in line with new requirements are made by the Bundesnetzagentur in consultation with the authorised organisations and with the participation of the relevant industry associations and manufacturers, taking account of existing standards and the state of the art

TR TKÜV Ausgabe 7.2 englisch (pdf / 3 MB) is currently applicable.