"Mastering the Internet" (MTI) is a project by the British government and part of the
Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP). The system was described in 2009 by
The Register and
The Sunday Times as the replacement for scrapped plans for a single central database. This involves thousands of
DPI black boxes at various
internet service providers in association with the GCHQ base in
Cheltenham, funded out of a
Single Intelligence Account budget of £1.6 bn, including a £200m contract with
Lockheed Martin and a contract with
BAE Systems Detica. As of 2013, the system is capable of
copying signals from up to 200 fibre-optic cables at all physical points of entry into Great Britain. == International cooperation ==