The other change beyond the funding quantity was the prestige of advancement beyond just been invited in for signals support or an archive function for other expert mil and gov work.
Real time work, setting policy was the new upgrade. New systems, contractors, linguistics, networks.
The domestic and international telco networks as they have existed and exist now are not a problem in terms of scale or access for the NSA and GCHQ.
Collect it all has always worked well given the all digital systems and funding.
Bulk collection has never been a problem since the 1930's for the USA. The UK and US did have a few Russian and Korean language issues back in the 1950's due to all the information been collected. That was quickly fixed.
The only question that has existed is what the press and historians understand. The UK view was that no signals collection material was to ever to been seen in any public court setting or commented on. Collect it all would not exist in the UK as public policy. The US is now talking of public lock boxes for all telco use been open to courts and devices sold with gov backdoors, trapdoors to reverse any crypto as used.
Watching the Soviet Union was not never a problem of how or been in need of more equipment. Understanding all US domestic and international calls was never a problem over many decades. The real question was the use of the result (ever more closed court use) or and who in mil/gov gets to set and shape policy.
Who will see the better result?
The classic UK view of letting people just use the telephone and networks as normal while collecting all? The results been used with great care as to never offer any public insight into what was done..
Or the US public talk of gov keys kept for consumer crypto and huge telco databases open to courts over decades? The public fully understanding their new phone/crypto is a tool of the gov/mil as sold.

A digital Berlin wall to find whistleblowers on any network and a new generation of private company boondoggle funding.
Contractors and mil systems that once faced the Soviet Union are now invited in for domestic use via new "portals".
Some Freedom of Information Act provision might allow for talking about projects historically but less of the secure in papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches domestically.
The collective agencies are free from antitrust scrutiny, liability and are free use the cyberthreat, cybercrime aspects as desired domestically.

Infiltration worked so well. Cooperation, leniency for working with the gov. Years of free charming, charismatic chatroom leaders and their accomplishments, forums and gov funded onion networks.
Once a person and all their data is lost the only hope is a "security check" word, phrase. Something that can be added or left out that shows duress or coercion.
That was the past.
Now with OS, hardware and telco collaboration expect every consumer device to have a backdoor or trap door as sold.
The backdoor or trap door would have been expected for the security services at a national level.
Now that same level of expert contractor is ready for state, city and local law enforcement use on any device recovered.
The same offer of cooperation, leniency, working with the gov will be made and a 'show' about needing the passwords over hours and much longer.
The device, network is open in seconds and the isolated holding time is been put to use.
The new trend is movement around a city with no access to any lawyer for many hours..
Just before some legal time limit for court documentation a person is released or the lawyer is finally allowed access for the first formal recorded interview.

The US West German and German links go back generations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
After the 1970's East Germany was not of any new interest to the UK and USA as all Soviet and East German signals where fully tracked. West Germany policy on the US and UK was of more interest to the US and UK.
Tornado jet sales, the UK East German diplomatic recognition, West German political moves surrounding the UK role in the Common Market.
Generations of West German experts helped the US and UK find out what was needed over many decades in West Germany.
The next move by the NSA and GCHQ was to pull West Germany deeper into a "third party" collection into the 1980's.
West Germany would get US export grade mil systems in exchange for all US/UK access to emerging West Germany telco networks.
What Germany now has is the product of past ww2 politics and generations of total telco collaboration by West/Germans for the US and UK.
Tame crypto and all political telco networks totally linked to the US and UK.

Access to voice, text, location, ip is all that is needed. The ability to collect it all is a given over decades in real time for the UK. Interception techniques have kept pace thanks to sigint modernisation like programmes.
What a network looks like the public or is said in public has no relation to any telco network that is totally open to the security services by design.

The UK has had total access to all communications networks in the UK since WW1.
Defence of the Realm Act 1914 gave vast new powers. HOW (Home Office Warrant) like use was expanded into the 1950's and beyond.
The UK had total mastery of all emerging telco sat systems in the 1960's, CSO Morwenstow/GCHQ Bude.
Irelands telco networks (domestic and all connections in and out) where all well understood.
As internet use, desktop crypto and mobile phone use became more common the UK had a few ideas about how to help with the creation of Government Technical Assistance Centre, later the NTAC (National Technical Assistance Centre).
All mobiles sold in the UK by default have been ready for intercept by design as set out in standards and international standards.
The use of early 1990's voice print technology and a new generation of cell site simulators have allowed the total collection of mobile calls all over UK cities for years.
Consumer grade computers with tame OS, weak default junk consumer grade crypto and expert malware have allowed any domestic computer system to be accessed by default over many years.
Networking anonymity is not an issues for the UK. The only real issues the UK has ever had with communications has been the Soviet Unions correct use of one time pads and number stations since the 1950's.
The SIGMOD initiative (sigint modernisation programme) has ensured the UK will never be without a total understanding of any type network in/out of the UK.
In the past years social media has been as open to courts as ever. OS developers ship the same standard of basic consumer grade protections with their desktop computers and seem as happy as ever to offer voice, keylogging, plain text and other access when requested by a UK court.
Mobile devices have always been and always will be open to any court request for all data, voice, location, images or telco network support to track, log.
Privacy is a useless concept when a UK court demands access in the UK on a UK network or any device sold, used or connected in the UK.
Any fancy imported crypto app layer is reduced to junk with keystrokes or voice been recorded by malware at a hardware or tame lower software/network/OS level.
The same level of access to text and calls will always exist on public/private networks thanks to international standards and all devices sold been intercept ready by design.
OS, networks, social media, telcos will never be a problem in real time for the UK.

Now part of the DRT box, device or dirtboxes ie cell site simulators. Some are fixed-site, tactical trailer ready or man-packable.
What was big for Iraq and Afghanistan is now back for domestic use. Data visualisation, graphs, geospatial maps are all in the mix depending on what is offered. Mix in private databases, purchased data for phone numbers.
The US seems to have been early with it but the US is now finding other nations efforts locally.
The other side is the wired versions for any/all Public Switched Telephone Network efforts.

Re Finding?
"This machine catches stingrays: Pwnie Express demos cellular threat detector" (Apr 21, 2015)
http://arstechnica.com/informa...
Looks for Unauthorized or unknown cell providers, Anomalous or suspicious base stations, IMSI catcher/interceptor identification, Rogue or malicious cellular base stations.

The cell site simulator becomes the tower and depending on the local law enforcement needs will gather voice, data, images, logs, text, gps, calls made.
Voice prints would be the next step. Malware down for software passwords would then allow for plain text as entered no matter the secure app loaded.
The phone trusts the cell site simulator network as it would a telco cell tower. The network between the phone and cell site simulator is wide open at the point.

Before the cell site simulator a court would just ask the telco to track a persons cell phone, account US wide. It worked well and could be accepted in any open court setting as a per person log.
The new cell site simulator count could be how many times a person of interest connects or is logged vs the bulk community collect it all using the cell site simulator 24/7.
A smaller number would be presented to keep the bulk community collection count well hidden.

Classic court allowed telco support would be for one cell number, account or person.
The cellular phone surveillance device becomes a cell tower like device in a community and collects all calls in that area.
The cell site simulator has total access as it forces all mobile phones in the area to connect to it.
Collect it all is how a cell site simulator works for cellular phone surveillance.
A change to bulk collection.

The new hardware should be totally ready for the next mobile standards, no dropping back.
Wonder what the areas around news papers and press offices are like :)
Journalists and people they meet should be very aware of that a log on a map can show. Two people standing next to each other for a short time both with their phones on.

In the past a telco would have to see court paper work to set a number into their system to track and log.
The lack of any new court comment or even telco paperwork is telling. Local law enforcement have moved away from needing local telcos to just collecting it all.
It is now cheaper to log all calls in an area and sort them than to request paper work a person of interest at a city or sate law enforcement level.
A cell phone is now a gps, text, voice print, photo, numbers called and beacon carried around waiting to be logged by local law enforcement...
Parallel construction will now be the on the discovery list for any good legal team.
The other question is why cant local law enforcement officials trust the telcos? What have the telcos done to be bypassed with hardware that has to fake been a cell site?
A real telco could give all the information around the USA as requested and stand in any open court. Are the numbers and accounts under investigation leaking as the court orders are been activated at the telco level?
The final question is what is been sent down to each phone as it is used? State and national tracking malware for any phone is connected in an area of interest?

The US can go back to Project MINARET http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
Project SHAMROCK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
The US like the UK has always had an interest in all communications internally and beyond the USA, UK.
The good news is this is now in the open and generations of crypto experts can finally understand the collaboration between mil/gov and the big telcos.