In extremely urgent cases and under the condition that there would be electronic systems for the exchange of data, it was possible for mobile operators to respond to Interior Ministry requests for mobile communication data within four hours, otherwise the response period would be at least 10 hours, mobile operators said at a meeting on January 14.

The meeting was organised by the parliamentary committee for internal security on the same day that a civil protest against proposed changes to the Electronic Communications Act (ECA) was held.

Svetoslav Dimitrov, spokesperson for internet service providers (ISPs) in Bulgaria said ISPs would need at least 72 hours to reply.

The statements from mobile and internet operators came as a reply to suggestions from the Interior Ministry that it might be willing to drop its demand for direct and permanent access to electronic communication data from proposed amendments to the ECA.

Both ISPs and non-governmental organisations present at the meeting objected to the proposed widening the scope of crimes for which electronic communication data could be requested. The amendments include not only serious crime, but also a list of 30 lesser types of crime that the Interior Ministry considered grave enough to warrant communication data requests.

Objections were that the inclusion of the lesser crimes might be a violation of Bulgarian constitution which only allows access to private communication data in the case of serious crimes, which carry a minimum sentence of five years in prison.

Atanas Anastasov, head of the internal security committee, was quoted by Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik as saying that the number of crimes would be lowered to about 10, as the others would be qualified as serious crimes anyway by amendments to the Penal Code. 

"We will consider the suggested deadlines," Atanasov was quoted as saying. 

January 18 is the deadline for changes to the proposed amendments of the ECA before second reading in Parliament.