[dave at farber.net: [IP] NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls]

[coderman]

hrmm, another question below...

On 5/11/06, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> ...
> The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records ...
> using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth
> ...
> The NSA's domestic program began soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, ...
> NSA representatives approached the nation's biggest telecommunications companies.
> ...
> AT&T, which at the time was headed by C. Michael Armstrong, agreed to help
> the NSA. So did BellSouth, headed by F. Duane Ackerman; SBC, headed by
> Ed Whitacre; and Verizon, headed by Ivan Seidenberg.
> ...
> Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest
> that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies.

let's look at 2002 operating revenue as a clue to telco size:
1. Verizon - $67,625,000,000
2. SBC - $43,138,000,000
3. AT&T - $37,827,000,000
4. Sprint+PCS - $27,256,000,000 (now add nextel?)
5. BellSouth - $22,440,000,000
6. Quest - $19,965,000,000

funny there is no mention of requests to Sprint; why their conspicuous absence?

here's a paranoid theory: they already provided pen register
equivalent data in real-time and could easily support the additional
raw fiber taps used for targeted capture before 9/11 made it a well
funded and well obfuscated priority across all carriers.

Daytona wasn't the only prototype / telco system adopted in this
domestic info war zone.

keep the whistles blowing...