Lawful Interception Market Expected to Reach $29.9 Billion by 2031—Allied Market Research

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, “Lawful Interception Market," The lawful interception market was valued at $3.4 billion in 2021, and is estimated to reach $29.9 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 24.7% from 2022 to 2031.

Lawful interception (LI) refers to the ability of law enforcement to eavesdrop on users of communication networks provided they have the authority to do so. It is the government’s legally sanctioned access to private communications, such as telephone conversations, e-mail messages, and direct messages. Furthermore, the key factors that drive the growth of the lawful interception market include increase in demand for monitoring, tracking data of players, and surge in demand for chatbots & virtual assistants to interact with followers. In addition, increase in demand for real-time data analytics positively impacts the growth of the lawful interception industry. However, lack of trained & skilled professionals and high implementation and maintenance cost hamper the lawful interception market growth. On the contrary, increase in demand for AI for making future predictions is expected to offer remunerative opportunities for expansion during the lawful interception market forecast. 

Depending on network technology, the mobile voice telephony segment garnered the largest lawful interception market share, owing to increase in global communication and surge in amount of traffic managed at mobile voice telephony devices. However, the WLAN segment is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period, owing to rise in number of data communication in enterprises and multi-location nature of businesses. 

Region wise, the lawful interception market size was dominated by North America in 2021, and is expected to retain its position during the forecast period, owing to increase in adoption of internet and increase in number of terrorist attacks in North America. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period, owing to countries such as China with high investments in AI technology. In addition, rise in number of sports competitiveness across the nations for higher position drives the lawful interception market industry. 

The lawful interception market has witnessed stable growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to a rise in demand for anti-money laundering (AML), fraud detection solutions, and various others solutions during the pandemic situation. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in changes in model performance, as more continuous monitoring and validation is required to mitigate various types of risks, compared to static validation and testing methods, which, in turn, drive the development of advanced 5G technology models. In addition, with rapid digital transformation, various governments have introduced stringent regulations to protect end user’s data such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Thus, governments in various countries have taken strict actions against the defaulters of COVID-19 regulations, and natural language processing technology is helping financial institutes to scan their internal policies as well as claims documents to check their compliance with different regulatory policies. However, the COVID-19 pandemic is making it even harder for companies to keep pace, and even more difficult for midsize and smaller companies to adopt 5G technologies, owing to long development timelines and high investment requirements.   

Most of the countries in the African region have relaxed regulations regarding lawful interception. In the last decade, the affluent segment of the population had access to telecommunications. However, now the telecommunications operators have penetrated to the remote areas of Africa. According to the Law Enforcement Disclosure Report published in June 2014 by Vodafone, which is a leading telecom provider operating in nearly 29 countries, the government in these countries have requested for subscribers’ data, and at times, demanded interception of data without issuing warrants against the person or organization. Government agencies have also requested for real-time monitoring of subscribers’ conversations without legal formalities.

Regulations have been imposed regarding lawful interception of conversations over telephone and mobile data in most of the African countries. In 2009, Lebanon implemented new lawful interception legislation, The Telecommunication Interception Act. Under this act, interception of telecommunications requires judicial or administrative approval. Namibia, Africa, enforced the Information Technology Policy in 2008, which includes provisions for lawful interception as per the directives of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to award contract for intelligence and surveillance activities that may impact personal life and privacy of citizens. The LEAs operating in Namibia would be able to monitor and intercept the communications of its citizens on behalf of the government. The NCC has released a draft policy on lawful interception and the commission accepts tenders based on the Public Procurement Act of 2007. As proposed in this policy, about 25 companies would be provided surveillance contracts on consultancy basis.

Key Findings of the Study: 

• By solution, the devices segment accounted for the largest lawful interception market share in 2021. 

• Region wise, North America generated highest revenue in lawful interception market forecast from 2021-2031. 

• On the basis of network technology, the mobile voice telephony generated the highest revenue in 2021. 

The key players profiled in the lawful interception market analysis are AQSACOM Innovating Intelligence, BAE Systems, Cisco Systems, Inc., Fire Eye, Incognito software system Inc., JSI Telecom, NICE Systems, SS8 Incorporation, Siemens AG, and Utimaco GmbH. These players have adopted various strategies to increase their market penetration and strengthen their position in the lawful interception industry.