Where the destination or origin of mail or parcels is overseas, or transportation involves carriage by air, carriers are already subject to Customs and Aviation regulations. Option 2 would represent a small additional cost to those CSPs currently outside the Act, in terms of the manpower, training and physical costs associated with providing reasonable assistance to an intercepting agency. Compliance costs would vary on a case to case basis, and are extremely difficult to predict. For example, equipment used for interception could also be used for other purposes, such as the prevention of fraud on the network. Precise costs for the capability already provided are hard to calculate, because interception capability was just one of a number of requirements specified to manufacturers when switching and other equipment was purchased.
Specific figures are subject to commercial sensitivities.
Option 3 would represent a significant additional cost in some cases. The industry itself has stated that it is currently too early to give a clear idea of the costs involved. However, although the capability and assistance requirements will fall on some of these providers, in practice these will be the responsibility of those who operate the system on which the service runs. As stated above, the Bill leaves open the question of cost allocation. Any costs falling on industry are likely to have some impact on these new providers.