If they know that, they can target those areas and then heavily advertise that they have better service than their competitors in those areas lol.
Historically they could do that by old fashioned research and surveying. But that's expensive. I imagine getting this data from everyones' phones is a lot cheaper and easier.
If that's the case, I don't think their desire is necessarily _evil_, but very misguided lol.
Also telcos only have data for their customers - this gets them access to competitors' customers.
Was not very precise. One of the "advantages" of 5G is a lot higher resolution for telcos. And I think even 4G was superior to "a few city blocks"
> telcos only have data for their customers - this gets them access to competitors' customers.
And this is the true reason for the request.
A mind-bending digital info screen, developed in partnership with Misapplied Sciences and dubbed Parallel Reality, will debut in beta form on June 29 near the Delta Sky Club in Concourse A of the McNamara Terminal.
According to a news release, numerous passengers can look at the same screen at once, and each passenger will see personalized flight information that the other people looking at the screen will not see, because they'll be looking at their own personalized flight info.
The Parallel Reality display conveys the same sort of stuff you find on traditional airport screens—about departure times, gate numbers, baggage carousel locations, and so on—but you don't have to scan lists of data because the screen semi-magically shows you only what you're looking for, while up to 100 other people are simultaneously looking at the same screen semi-magically showing them what they're looking for.
https://www.frommers.com/blogs/passportable/blog_posts/delta...
Perhaps I am missing something, but I don't understand the intersection of why telco's are involved in serving subpoenas and the need to know the physical location of users. Are you referring to a log of networks / DHCP leases their customers were using at any given time?
Telcos keep it because it helps them with network capacity planning and is incredibility financially lucrative when they want to sell the data. It's probably more to fill in their data product for malls and fine grained location than to do it for subpoenas, which if they had a choice would probably rather not have to do.
Well I know that in the UK it is a legal requirement, but not sure about the US.
Not sure what country you are in, though that is untrue in USA. Businesses keep whatever business records they desire, and some required regulatory/personnel data. Even if they have the data a USA attorney can try to argue that the request is unduly burdensome or too broad and ask court to quash subpoena.
Subpoenas are used to compel production of existing information. Speculatively creating info to comply with future theoretical request is not necessary. It's easier to not have the info and truthfully respond to subpoena with "no such data".