Ambiguities around traffic data retention

Yesterday, the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) held an information meeting on traffic data retention. More than 100 people attended, which shows the interest in the upcoming law that will most likely come into force on July 1 this year. The situation for operators is very strange: the law and the obligation to store are due to come into force on July 1, but the regulation on what to store has not yet arrived. There is a perception that operators have known for a long time what they have to store and therefore should have already made adjustments to the systems. At the information meeting, PTS presented a very recent report in which they point out a number of ambiguities that must reasonably be clarified before operators can order system adjustments.

Another dimension that the Ministry of Justice does not seem to understand is that it takes time to make system changes in the telecommunications network. The normal duration of an upgrade from the finalized requirements specification to having introduced the new function in the network is typically 18 months. So right now there is not even a requirements specification!

The industry is making efforts to introduce data retention. It is therefore very difficult to understand why a dialogue on the requirements has not been initiated earlier. These views were already expressed in the consultation response to the 2007 report.

Perhaps the threat of fines against Sweden for delaying the implementation of the EU Data Retention Directive is stressing politicians so much that they are losing their sense of what is realistic and operators are taking the hit.

It does not feel like a straightforward policy, but rather an attempt to evade responsibility for not having conducted the dialog in time.