[TheRealDunkirk]

I mean, there's a reason that the government was involved with setting up the first cell networks. No assumptions need to be involved. They ARE all compromised.

[RF_Savage]

Lawful intercept has always existed in phone networks. Just that one cannot use that in non-allied nations.

[TheRealDunkirk]

You’re missing the point. It was designed to be transparent to interception efforts up front, so you can’t tell if you’re being surveilled, lawfully or not.

[RF_Savage]

For analog Gen0 and Gen1 networks I'd make the claim that it was just as much about technical limitations of the era.

But for 2G export crypto it definitely was about keeping it weak enough to break on demand.