In some third-world countries you cannot get a telecom licence unless you "implement" this, or your license could be easily revoked or canceled.<p>In Russia, for example, there are explicit regulations which says that no telecom company can operate unless it provides "monitoring and law-enforcement facilities".<p>My guess is that <i>each</i> country nowadays has regulations of this sort, so telecom equipment manufactures are forced to "add required functionality". Of course, US has such "secret" regulations.)<p>So, it is much better to face the reality and to standardize this shit to reduce the pain of telecom "workers".)