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Designing A New Regulatory Framework For Telecommunications Interception And Access In Jordan Discussion Chapter

New Regulatory Framework for Telecommunications in Jordan Jordan Telecommunications

QUANTITATIVE RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Chapter X presented the pre-test results of the pilot study that used qualitative data collected from the interviews with Jordanian dignitaries. This chapter presents the quantitative results from the survey administered to the larger representative sample of respondents from Jordanian businesses.

The interviews conducted for the pilot study and a review of the literature supported the development of questions used in the survey. The interview process was used to ensure that the questions used in the research would have content validity and, thus, would accurately reflect the primary issues concerning telecommunications law. Further, the pilot study served to verify that terminology used in the survey questions showed consistent usage in the respondent sample.

Sample and Response Rate (Questionnaire)

The random stratified sample is representative of the population at large for persons affiliated with or interested in telecommunications regulation. The sample was developed to assist in making comparisons between the different categories of respondents, and to enable discrete analysis of the categorical point-of-view of the respondents concerning the telecommunications interception and access law application in Jordan.

The number of subjects contacted to participate in the questionnaire was 500. From this group, 368 completed the questionnaire bringing the response rate to 73.6, as shown in Table 8.1. This is a relatively high response rate for a survey of this type.

Table 8.1

Sample Size

Number

Percentage

Contacted Stakeholders

Respondents (Questionnaire)

73.6

The sample demographics are shown by respondent title in Table. 8.2. Respondents in the Jordanian Bar Association and Judiciary (JBA) numbered 250 out of a possible 300. This group made up 68% of the total sample. The next largest group by respondent title was 60 government officials from various agencies that consisted of 16.3% of the sample. The remaining sample groups by respondent title were Telecommunications Regulatory Commission at 7.3%, parties interested in human rights at 5.4%, and Jordanian business leaders at 3%.

Table 8.2

Sample Demographics by Respondent Title

Respondent Title

Number

# of Respondents

Percentage (%) of Sample

Jordanian Bar Association and Judiciary (JBA)

68

Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC)

50

27

7.3

Parties interested in human rights in Jordan (HR)

30

20

5.4

Government officials from agencies such as the General Intelligence Department, Public Security Directorate (GID), and the Independent Anti-corruption Commission

60

16.3

Jordanian business leaders (JBL)

20

11

3

Total

*68=250/300 7.3=27/50 5.4=20/30-16.3=60/100 3=11/20

The sample demographics for non-responders are shown by respondent title in Table. 8.3. The percentage of non-responders overall was 26.6%, a satisfactorily low number. None of the respondent title groups show an inordinate number or percentage of non-responders. The highest percentage of non-respondents occurred in the respondent title group with the largest total number of respondents. Representation of respondents in all the other respondent title groups remains strong, with the percentage of non-respondents less than 10% within each group.

Table 8.3

Non-Responders by Respondent Title

Respondent Title

# of Non-Respondents

# of Respondents

% of Non-Respondents

Jordanian Bar Association and Judiciary (JBA)

50

10

Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC)

23

27

4.6

Parties interested in human rights in Jordan (HR)

10

20

2

Government officials from agencies such as the General Intelligence Department, Public Security Directorate (GID), and the Independent Anti-corruption Commission

40

60

8

Jordanian Business Leaders (JBL)

9

11

1.8

Total

26.6

8.3 Data Analysis

The questionnaire was developed to gain information about designing a new regulatory framework for telecommunications interception and access in Jordan. The questionnaire consisted of three parts. The first section of the questionnaire consisted of data collected about the experience of the subjects related to telecommunications interception and access. The second section was used to gather data on the subjects' opinions about obstacles that apply to telecommunications interception and access law in Jordan. The third section was used to gather data about the possibility of designing a new regulatory framework for telecommunications interception and access in Jordan as affected by the research variables.

Factor analysis was used in this study to reduce the number of variables in such a way that a structural analysis would be supported. Factor analysis extracts the proportion of variance that is shared by several items and which is due to commonality (common factors). By using factor analysis, the researcher was able to use the latent variables, which are not observable, to explain the correlations between the observations. Further, the use of factor analysis permitted the error variance -- the variance not accounted for by the correlation coefficients -- to be ignored while accounting only for the variance in the correlation coefficients. A factor rotation strategy was used to obtain a clear pattern of factor loadings.

The process of diagonalizing a matrix in factor analysis allows variance to be consolidated. Eigenvalues provide information about the consolidation of variance, such that, the larger the eigenvalue, the more the variance, and the "factors with small or negative eigenvalues that are usually omitted from solutions"[footnoteRef:1] (Tabachnick and Fidell, 1996, p. 646). [1: Tabachnick, B.G., & Fidell, L.S. (1996). Using multivariate statistics (3rd Ed.). New York: Harper Collins.]

A t-test was used to determine the statistical significance between the sample distribution's mean and parameters. Structural equation modeling (SEM) used a covariance data matrix in a confirmatory manner to estimate the structural and measurement relationships implied by the hypothesized model. The SEM provides details about the key respondent groups and with regard to their perceptions and impact on decision-making related to establishing a telecommunications regulatory framework in Jordan. A Pearson correlation coefficient analysis was used to determine the discriminate validity of the survey.

A reliability analysis was conducted using statistical analysis processes such as Cronbach's alpha and hypothesis testing. These procedures are employed to gauge the reliability of the instrument to gather sufficiently robust data, which will then enable generalizations to be made regarding the probability of these findings beyond the sample to the entire population.

8.2.1 Questionnaire Validity

A pilot study was conducted by using individual open interviews to pre-test the validity of the questions to be used in the questionnaires and the interviews of the study. Face validity was addressed in the pre-test by using judgment to determine whether the questions contained items that were adequate to measure the research variables of interest. Against the background of the literature review, and through consideration of the regulatory framework for telecommunications in Australia, interview questions were developed that reflect the known relevant issues of telecommunications law and access.

Concurrent validity was tested through the interviews in the first stage of data collection. In an iterative fashion, the interview questions were tested with a representative group of subjects consisting of...

An analysis of the responses gathered through the interview process and a review of the secondary data obtained through the collection of literature representing the design and implementation of interception and access law by government in Jordan and internationally, provided a test of content validity.
8.3.2 Reliability Analysis

The questionnaire in this study asked questions about the experiences and perceptions of respondents regarding the regulation of telecommunications systems in general, and about regulation related to access and interception of telecommunications as it would occur in Jordan. The pilot study functioned to address reliability issues related to the instrument itself, such as poor questionnaire construction or structural bias.

The purpose of the factor analysis is to examine the associations among variables, based on the correlations between them to see if there are underlying relationships, thereby providing a means for testing the construct validity of the questionnaire. In this research, eight factors in the questionnaire were subjected to factor analysis. The factors are national security, criminal investigation, combat terrorist, evidence, economic growth, implementing internationally, cost, and privacy. Each factor was combined with several question items that respondents would have opportunity to answer as they completed the questionnaire. These items and the factors were examined through factor analysis, the results of which are shown in Table 8.4 and Table 8.5.

Table 8.4

Factor Loadings -- Eight Variables for implementing telecommunication interception and access law in Jordan

Variables

Items

V1

V2

V3

V4

V5

V6

V7

V8

National Security

4

0.89

0.08

0.18

0.27

0.31

0.07

0.17

0.04

5

0.87

0.08

0.16

0.24

0.17

0.10

0.41

0.19

6

0.91

0.05

0.42

0.33

0.25

0.12

0.36

0.11

7

0.88

0.01

0.12

0.25

0.04

0.12

0.18

0.33

Criminal Investigation

8

0.28

0.73

0.19

0.12

0.08

0.29

0.17

0.22

9

0.23

0.72

0.33

0.28

0.19

0.11

0.12

0.23

10

0.24

0.87

0.34

0.15

0.17

0.18

0.12

0.15

11

0.25

0.82

0.35

0.24

0.15

0.17

0.22

0.33

12

0.12

0.86

0.22

0.16

0.18

0.22

0.25

0.31

13

0.22

0.86

0.21

0.08

0.17

0.23

0.28

0.16

Combat terrorist

14

0.02

0.17

0.86

0.41

0.12

0.19

0.29

0.17

15

0.01

0.22

0.89

0.25

0.16

0.22

0.18

0.12

Evidence

15

0.21

0.29

0.12

0.75

0.22

0.02

0.08

0.14

16

0.31

0.33

0.35

0.71

0.14

0.06

0.16

0.22

Economic Growth

17

0.12

0.08

0.32

0.09

0.70

0.08

0.08

0.04

18

0.15

0.12

0.21

0.11

0.76

0.12

0.05

0.09

19

0.22

0.14

0.14

0.06

0.76

0.14

0.14

0.11

20

0.32

0.22

0.19

0.15

0.78

0.22

0.16

0.06

21

0.15

0.23

0.22

0.04

0.89

0.23

0.18

0.05

Implementing Internationally

( Urgent Timing)

29

0.01

0.07

0.19

0.34

0.16

0.86

0.33

0.05

30

0.05

0.08

0.33

0.42

0.19

0.77

0.27

0.04

31

0.18

0.03

0.27

0.26

0.22

0.85

0.12

0.08

*V1 National security, V2 criminal investigation, V3 Combat terrorist, V4 Evidence, V5 Economic Growth, V6 Implementing Internationally (Urgent Timing)

The results from Table 8.4 and Table 8.5 indicate that all factor loadings were larger than 0.70%, which represented acceptable factors and items. This indicates that the factor structure was sufficiently well designed and explained.

Table 8.5

Factor Loadings -- Two Variables for Obstacle telecommunication interception and access law in Jordan

Cost

21

0.05

0.16

0.18

0.19

0.15

0.22

0.78

0.17

22

0.14

0.18

0.26

0.22

0.12

0.41

0.79

0.41

23

0.28

0.06

0.42

0.31

0.09

0.23

0.87

0.36

Privacy

24

0.04

0.09

0.34

0.27

0.19

0.23

0.15

0.89

25

0.19

0.33

0.38

0.22

0.11

0.15

0.06

0.88

26

0.21

0.37

0.22

0.18

0.06

0.14

0.09

0.75

27

0.06

0.12

0.24

0.26

0.22

0.09

0.22

0.71

28

0.15

0.18

0.26

0.28

0.25

0.11

0.17

0.87

*V 7 Cost, V 8 Privacy

Cronbach's coefficient alpha was employed to measure the reliability based on the internal consistency of the mean or average correlation for each item in the scale with other items. Factor analysis was applied directly to the correlation matrix of the original variables of the data set in order to generate first-order factors. A factor analysis was applied to the matrix of correlations among the first-order factors in order to generate second-order factors. Table 8.6 shows the number of items, from the total of 32 items in the questionnaire, that cluster under each of the first-order and second-order factors. Each Cronbach's coefficient alpha for the items and the factors is shown in Table 8.6. According to Leech et al. (2008, 2005), Cronbach's coefficient alpha should be above…

Sources used in this document:
The results of this research indicate that Jordan is conceptually poised to develop and adopt a regulatory framework for telecommunications interception and access that support the use of standards-based technical implementations for this lawful interception. The following categorical considerations support the views expressed by respondents in this research that a culture of acceptance regarding the regulatory framework for telecommunications interception and access exists and, further, that there is a need for this regulatory framework.

Use of digital communication is rising in Jordan. In 2006, only 4.6% of the population in Jordan was regularly using the internet. Today, nearly five years later, that rate of usage will have increased if only because internet access is moving to mobile digital platforms. Five years ago, many people used desktop personal computers to access the internet. For younger consumers particularly, internet access shifted to laptops and smart phones. Recent studies in social networking indicate that many young people may exclusively access the internet on these mobile digital devices (The Research Intelligence Group http://www.trig-us.com / ). Mobile digital devices are becoming exponentially faster, cheaper, and capable of replacing stationary personal computers. It is reasonable to assume that the use of mobile digital devices is rising among criminals and terrorists as well.

Incompatible laws. A number of Jordanian laws are designed to protect the privacy and human rights of its citizens with regard to modes of communication. The Telecommunications Act protects privacy related to the use of telephones and telecommunication networks. The Jordanian Constitution Act Article 18 protects communication through the postal, telephonic, and telegraphic systems. Monitoring and surveillance occurs where the law permits where persons are considered to pose a threat to the government or national security. Provisions of these regulations do not necessarily work in concert, and this situation may be exacerbated by the fact that Jordan does not have specific telecommunication interception and access statutes.
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