Opinion ID: 784224
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Provider of Wire or Electronic Communication Service

Text: 30 The question next becomes whether the Company had an obligation pursuant to § 2518(4) to assist law enforcement in intercepting the oral communications in the car. If the Company is a provider of wire or electronic communication service, landlord, custodian or other person, then it is so obligated. See § 2518(4). 31 The Company contends that it is not a provider of wire or electronic communication service because it does not operate the cellular service used as part of the System. 13 This contention lacks force. 32 There is a clear, albeit somewhat complicated, textual basis for concluding that the Company's contract with the cellular phone company does not allow it to evade the duties imposed by the wiretapping statute. For purposes of § 2518(4), 33 wire communication means any aural transfer made in whole or in part through the use of facilities for the transmission of communications by the aid of wire, cable, or other like connection between the point of origin and the point of reception (including the use of such connection in a switching station) furnished or operated by any person engaged in providing or operating such facilities for the transmission of ... communications; 34 18 U.S.C. § 2510(1). Additionally, 35 electronic communication service means any service which provides to users thereof the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications; 36 18 U.S.C. § 2510(14). 14 As noted, cellular telephone service, despite its apparent wireless nature, is within § 2510(1)'s definition of wire communication 15 because cellular service uses wire and cable connections to connect calls. 16 37 To determine whether the Company is a provider of wire or electronic communication service under § 2518(4), it is helpful to track the times the statute uses a form of the word provide. We count three instances: First, § 2510(1) defines a wire communication as an aural transfer made ... through facilities ... furnished or operated by any person engaged in providing or operating such facilities for the transmission of interstate or foreign communications. Id. (emphasis added). Here, the facilities referred to belong to the cellular phone company. That cellular phone company is the person that furnishe[s] or operate[s] those facilities. 38 Second, § 2510(14) defines an electronic communication service as a service which provides to users ... the ability to send or receive wire ... communications. Id. (emphasis added). The System as a whole undoubtedly provides users ... the ability to send or receive wire ... communications. These wire communications are sent via the cellular network. 39 Third, § 2518(4) targets providers of wire or electronic communication service. Under our reading of the statute, the Company is the provider and the System is the electronic communication service that it offers, even though the Company neither furnishes nor operates the cellular facilities that actually perform the aural transfer referred to in § 2510(1). 40 The Company's customers are billed by the Company for the airtime and have no direct dealings with the cellular telephone company. Using the term provides as one would in ordinary discourse, it is the Company, not the cellular telephone company, that provides the communication service to its customers. 41 The service-providing structure here is very much akin to circumstances in which an established long-distance telephone carrier offers local phone service even though it does not own or operate any of the local infrastructure. Cf. Verizon Communications, Inc. v. FCC, 535 U.S. 467, 475-76, 491-92, 122 S.Ct. 1646, 152 L.Ed.2d 701 (2002); see also Mike Langberg, Bundles Can Offer Phone Bargains, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, Jan. 23, 2003, at 1E; Yochi J. Dreazen, Supreme Court Rules Against Bells, WALL ST. J., May 14, 2002, at A2. Customers pay the long-distance carrier for local service; the long-distance carrier then pays fees to the local telephone company for use of its lines. Nevertheless, from the point of view of the customers, the long-distance carrier is clearly the provider of [the] wire or electronic communication service. 17 Similarly, the Company provides a wire or electronic communication service to its customers even though it could not do so without the cellular telephone company's services. 18 42 That the provider of wire or electronic communication service mentioned in § 2518(4) may be distinct from the person in § 2510(1) who furnishe[s] or operate[s] facilities for the transmission of communications is confirmed by a separate provision of the wiretapping statute — § 2511(2)(a)(i). Section 2511(2)(a)(i), which exempts designated persons from the wiretapping laws when intercepting communications is a necessary incident to their business, specifies that the exemption only extends to an officer, employee, or agent of a provider of wire or electronic communication service, whose facilities are used in the transmission of a wire or electronic communication. Id. (emphasis added). Thus, the statute distinguishes between those service providers that furnish their own facilities, and those service providers like the Company that do not. 19 Section 2518(4), in contrast, makes no such distinction. So the Company is covered by that section and required to provide such assistance as that section requires.