Vodafone says that it plans to contact the regulators and governments in the 25 countries it operates in to seek the public release of the wiretap requests it receives.
Like all regulated telecoms companies, it is required to permit legal wiretapping or provide location information about customers to the police or security services. Such requests are usually kept confidential though.
Vodafone is now seeking permission to publish, if not the details, at least the volumes of requests that it receives.
A number of internet companies such as Google now routinely publish how many censorship or related requests they get from governments. However, as they are generally unregulated in most countries, they can publish that data regardless of the government's opinion on the matter.
Telcos are would need permission, or face sanctions or even the loss of their operating license.
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