TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call

Re: Cell Phone Company Records the Tower Handling Call

Burkitt-Gray (alan@burkitt-gray.com)
Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:58:31 -0000

In volume 23 : Issue 610 phoner@company.com wrote:

> Cell phone companies record the tower that handles each call, and
> then keep that info for at least a short time."

Well, of course. Where's the surprise? Operators not only have to
provide E-911 location information to emergency services, but are also
investigating opportunities for location-based services, which would
at the very least use cellsite information.

Here in the UK there have been two prominent murder cases where
routine location-based information from cellsites was key. In November
2003 in the trial of Ian Huntley for the murder of two teenagers,
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the prosecution used detailed
evidence of his movements during and after the murder, based on his
location when he turned his phone on, made calls, and turned it off,
and when it went out of range. He was found guilty and is now doing
life.

And when a prominent television presenter, Jill Dando, was stabbed to
death at the door of her home in broad daylight in London in 1999, the
phone companies supplied data to the police about phones in use in the
area at the relevant time. The person eventually arrested and
convicted of the murder didn't have a phone, but at the time of the
investigation much was made -- particularly in the ukcrypto email list
-- about the use of the phone data.

Alan B-G
Alan Burkitt-Gray, London, UK
alan@burkitt-gray.com

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