AT&T, Verizon Have Different Obligations Than Apple
For US phone companies like AT&T and Verizon Communications, the notion of resisting a court order like Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook recently did is probably inconceivable. The reason is legal.
In 1994, Congress passed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act which required that carriers build surveillance capability into their networks. That law was later expanded to cover voice calls placed over the Internet, but not all Internet communication. Other attempts to further expand the law to cover technology companies such as Apple have failed. These days, the nation’s telecom carriers receive thousands of information requests from the government and law enforcement in both national security and civil and criminal matters.