Cell Tower Record question for Cingular Emp.

It seems cingular is reluctant to release information on Cell tower location to call made records (even with subpoena). Is there any information on duration of record storage and ability to recoup that information. This information could release an innocent man from prison.

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Well of course they have records of calls that were made and how long they were. The only reason I could see as to why you'd need information relating to the cell tower is to pinpoint a location of the caller. That I'm not sure of. That may be some type of liability if they know where the location of every call is made and received from. I would imagine that they only know this information while the call is connected. But I am not sure.

thanks for the help...I know they have the call registered and the length of time a I have the billing showing that. Often these providers use an independent or another company's cell tower as they can't physically provide all of the towers they would need for their own capacity plus the skys would be jammed with towers. Consequently they are billed by the provideing tower or network and some where along the line would acquire an itemized list of calls made from that tower for the billing forwarded. They would also need to retain this information for their own tax purposes to show the write off to the IRS if an audit is required.
Within this area I have determined that there is 30 plus tower sites (information available on the net) and that there are a few in the immediate vicinity that are not owned by cingular. I would guess that they have these records on some format in some archive as they do retain them in that I have read other cases where the courts, attorneys or even the police have used this information to detain, convict or release an accused person.

Right, many times a 3rd party actually owns the tower itself and sells the connections to providers.

Is your goal to find out what calls were connected to what towers in order to pinpoint where the call was made from?

Yes exactly. We did approach Cingular and were told that they only kept the records for a couple of months. We have not found a way to confirm that and since we are not a police entity we felt there may have been some lack of effort on their part. This is new evidence in a very serious case in that the phone records were not discovered or remembered prior to conviction. The trial occured a year after the time in question and we can connect a specific call that happened in the realm of the time of the crime to another person in a conversation with the accused. That still does not prove the accused was in another place than the crime occured at that time...thus the need for the tower record of that call being transmitted as the tower would show the location of the original transmission. The original transmission would have occured some 15 miles away from the point of the crime. Thanks for any help you can extend

Originally Posted by tavenger5

I would imagine that they only know this information while the call is connected. But I am not sure.

I take that back. I looked into it a little and turns out that a company may store information every time your phone looks for a signal. The frequency of that ping, and how it is stored and such depends on the company. In some cases the GPS features on a phone can be used in the same manner without the need of cell phone tower information.

There's several articles out there discussion the privacy issues that go along with this. This is probably why Cingular is so reluctant to release any information.
(Verizon Facing 5 Billion Dollar Lawsuit For Handing Over Records... | The Huffington Post)

I also found a couple articles about court cases in which phone records were used to pinpoint the locations of a person by their cell phone. I'm sure you've seen some of them.

Blog 702: On the "Business Record Exception to Daubert"
Peninsula Peace and Justice Center: 5/12/06 - Reach Out and Track Someone

thanks for your help once again....I had not seen the Blog 702 site. It was interesting....but that still leaves me to find someone who may have inside knowledge of Cingulars record practices / Storage. If I could determine the possibility that the information still exists either in Cingular or at the premises of the billing entity (tower owner) then I would have some hope of extracting the records. I need that possibility to be declared by an knowledgeable source. Thanks again John