According to Wikipedia.com, a telco
i.e. telephone company, telephone service provider or telecommunications
operator:
is a kind of communications
service provider (CSP) (more precisely a telecommunications service provider or
TSP) that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data
communications access…With the advent of mobile telephony, telephone companies
now include wireless carriers, or mobile network operators. Most telephone
companies now also function as internet service providers (ISPs), and the
distinction between a telephone company and an ISP may disappear completely
over time, as the current trend for supplier convergence in the industry
continues.
Historical cell site location information
or mobile/cell phone location data is a collection of past connections between
a mobile phone and cell towers or telecommunications masts. A cell site is mobile
phone base station or antenna where radio signals are sent and received. In the United States case of State v. Earls, it was stated that “Cell or
(mobile) phones register or identify themselves with nearby cell towers every seven
seconds. Cell providers (like MTN, Glo, Etisalat and Airtel in Nigeria) collect
data from those contacts, which allow carriers to locate cell phones on a real-time
basis and to reconstruct a phone’s movement from recorded data.”
Most times when you call the call
centre of your GSM network provider or telco in Nigeria such MTN, Glo, Etisalat
or Airtel, to make a complaint or inquiry, the customer care representative
will ask you what town or city and local government you are calling from. I am
usually taken aback by this question because they (telcos) already know or at
least can approximate my location so why bother to ask me.
Whenever a mobile telephone makes
a call, the call is routed through a cell site located at a fixed geographic location.
Mobile telephone companies keep records of which cell site processes a call,
and through this information law enforcement agents can locate the position of
the SIM card, and therefore infer the location of the telephone user. This was
used by the Nigerian Police to obtain the location of Timothy Dung, an armed
robbery suspect in the case of The State v. Timothy Dung. On page three of the judgement it was stated
thus:
According to the PW2 on the
20/8/2010 a case of armed robbery was transferred from the ‘E’ Division Police Station
to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID). PW1 volunteered a
statement before the police.
According to the PW2 they swung
into action by applying their detective mechanism to arrest the person because
the line snatched was still going. Police applied to court to obtain a court order
to serve Airtel/Zain who was the service provider of the line (Zain) snatched
from the PW1. Airtel/Zain complied with the court order and released the
coordinate to the Police. The coordinate enabled the Police to set a security
trapping system that showed them the exact direction and position where the
accused (that) was using that particular line at that time was standing. The
system gave the latitude and longitude on google earth. lt shows(sic) that the accused
person who was with the stolen line was at Abuja and the call history of the
line after the robbery was within Abuja town and a town in Plateau State. However, about three' days back, the line was
showing that it, was in Abuja. The Police went to Abuja and the system directed
them to Federal Fire Service in Abuja town and they went there. When the PW2 and
his team called the number/line, it rang and the accused received the call. The
PW2 then arrested the accused and interviewed him.
The case of United States v. Allums, also shows that telcos know or can
estimate the location of their subscribers or customers at any given time using
historical cell site location information (CSLI) or cell site analysis. James
Edward Allums on 30th November, 2007, robbed a bank in Salt Lake City,
Utah, United States. A bank employee dropped a chair from the second floor
balcony onto Allums’ head as he stood brandishing a knife at a teller on the
first floor. In anger Allums removed his
ski mask to look up and curse at the chair-dropper and in the process glowered
directly into the surveillance camera. Allums had a mobile phone on him on 30th
November.
Prosecutors introduced evidence
that cell site tracking records showed that Allums’ phone, and presumably
Allums, was located in close proximity to the bank and to two other locations
also robbed by Allums. Thus, Allums was convicted on three counts of armed
robbery.
Apart from historical CSLI mobile
phone location can also be determined through GPS and mobile phone
triangulation. At this juncture it is appropriate
to state how mobile phone communications work as captured or explained in Re: Application for Telephone Information Needed for a Criminal Investigation:
Cell (mobile) phones operate
through the use of radio waves. To
facilitate cell phone use, cellular service providers maintain a network of
radio base stations—also known as cell towers (popularly referred to in Nigeria
as mast)—throughout their coverage areas.
Whenever a cell phone makes or
receives a call, sends or receives a text message, or otherwise sends or
receives data, the phone connects via radio waves to an antenna on the closest
cell tower, generating cell site location information (CSLI). The
resulting CSLI includes the precise location of the cell tower and cell site
serving the subject cell phone during each voice call, text message, or data
connection. If a cell phone moves away
from the cell tower with which it started a call and closer to another cell
tower, the phone connects seamlessly to that next tower.
CSLI may be generated in the
absence of user interaction with the cell phone. For example, CSLI may still be
generated during an incoming phone call that is not answered. Additionally, most modern smartphones have
applications that continually run in the background, sending and receiving data
without a user having to interact with the cell phone.
Indeed, cell phones, when turned on
and not in airplane mode, are always scanning their network’s cellular
environment. In so doing, cell phones periodically identify themselves to the
closest cell tower—i.e., the one with the strongest radio signal—as they move
throughout their network’s coverage area.
This process, known as “registration” or “pinging,” facilitates the
making and receiving of calls, the sending and receiving of text messages, and
the sending and receiving of cell phone data. Pinging is automatic and occurs
whenever the phone is on, without the user’s input or control. A cell phone
that is switched on will ping the nearest tower every seven to nine minutes. (Emphasis
mine)
From the above it is crystal
clear that CSLI can be used to estimate the location of an individual by
identifying the nearest cell tower or mast and sector used when a call is made.
It therefore presents circumstantial evidence of a person’s location. This ability to locate a cell phone presents obvious
benefits to law enforcement and intelligence authorities as seen in the two cases referred to above. CSLI
also poses a significant threat to privacy. Thus in State v. Earls (supra) the court observed that:
Advances in technology offer great
benefits to society in many areas. At the same time, they can pose significant
risks to individual privacy rights. This case highlights both principles as we
consider recent strides in cell-phone technology. New improvements not only
expand our ability to communicate with one another and access the Internet, but
the cell phones we carry can also serve as powerful tracking devices able to
pinpoint our movements with remarkable precision and accuracy.
