AboutDebiN Expertise I can answer questions on cellular phones, the physical device, the network, contracts, billing, ordering, porting and what to look for when purchasing cell phones. I am located in the United States. I am an expert on BlackBerrys, Treos, HTC devices and iPhones as well as cellphones and aircards. I have over 15 years of experience in both the wireless and wireline world with the carriers. I have a lot of knowledge regarding the wireless providers - their services, prices and policies, both GSM (AT&T (formerly Cingular) and T-Mobile) and CDMA (Verizon, Sprint/Nextel (iDEN)). I am very familiar with the individual devices and their specifications. I can also answer questions regarding BlackBerrys, iPhones and other PDAs, both Palm-based and Windows-based. I can troubleshoot most any problem someone is having with their cellular device or with the provider.
Experience Over 15 years in the Telecom industry working for the carriers with individuals, small business, medium business and large corporations(Fortune 500)
Education/Credentials Master's in Telecommunications
Question Hello, I live in Ohio, I have a HTC PRO cell phone & my cell service is with Sprint. I would like to know what would I have to do to subpoena the text messages from my account? Would I be able to just get a court order, what's the process & would I get a copy of the text's or a copy of just the numbers involved...Thanks
Answer There is not any way to retrieve text messages from any carrier. Whether or not you have a subpoena makes no difference. None of the carriers are required (and do not do this on their own) to retain the content of text messages. What can be subpoenaed with a court order is the record of text messages, i.e., the number that sent the message and the date and time, but NOT the content. No matter what any one tells you that may be to the contrary, you absolutely cannot retrieve text messages from your carrier, period. It has nothing to do with your phone, or your carrier. Once a message is delivered, it's your responsiblity to save it if you choose, otherwise, it's gone. Text messaging was designed for short messages (160 characters or less) and to be deleted, not saved. This whole saving text messages like they were important emails is something that the carriers are not set up to do. They don't have the server capacity to do this and unless and until the FCC requires them to retain the content of text messages, they won't be doing it anytime soon. On occasion, a carrier may have a couple of days or weeks worth of text content that was not deleted yet from their servers, but it's highly unlikley these days. Sorry that I didn't have better news. If you need this info, you will need to have an attorney do this for you. A subpoena is issued through an attorney. I hope this helps. Thanks. DebiN
