Originally posted by BajaBlanca
Blanca, how are you? Would you mind putting this up on the nomad site?
Again, based on advice here about Interpol, our law enforcement re Baja cell phone usage, says once again, this effort is futile. I went over
contacting Interpol etc.with our U.S. detective, and there is no data to be had. A factor I hadn't considered is that the cell phone companies have
sold off their cell sites, and especially in Mexico, each tower or group of towers is owned by various different persons or company. And due to data
storage constraints and maintenance cost, they don't keep records of inactivity, or pinging, and certainly not unbilleable calls. Local calls are
unbilleable calls just like incomplete calls are unbilleable. These records are not retained, and cell phone companies don't want those call records
or call attempts. A long distance,international call, must be allowed and no steps were taken by us to verify that before Gary left here. Also, as
I said before, because there are few cell towers in all of Baja, since they do not have nearly the traffic, population nor obstructions we do here
(there was 1 site in 2006), even if there was record of a ping, it would be the site nearest SanQuintin which wouldn't tell us much as to where he is,
cause the site covers a radius of 100's miles. Cell sites are also not named by city or location but by a code, so then we need someone to tell us
where it is, which is highly confidential information.
If your nomad can provide a phone number for the Mexican Interpol office,I'd be happy to try it myself, but I made dozens of calls directly to
various carriers to no avail, quite frustrating and costly.
RE question: No, the phone does not ping when turned off (same no-ping if battery is dead). If it's out of range of any cell sites, no record of
ping exists even if the phone is on and pinging (this is when the phone would show "No Signal" or no bars).
To clarify again, the U.S. Embassy has confirmed with me several times they've NEVER been able to get ANY info on cell phone usage out of Telmex or
any other Mexican carrier, especially when it is an American number. Our U.S. detective says he also frequently has inadequate information from all
cell phone carriers as to precise location of call originations.
Kimberly Patton |
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