Digital Forensics

What is Cell Site Analysis?

Cell Site Analysis is a specialist technique used to establish the geographical location of a mobile phone at a specific time when calls, SMS messages or data is sent or received.

With the prolific usage of mobile phones throughout the world, Cell Site Analysis has become critical within civil and criminal investigations. With many individuals carrying more than one mobile phone, being able to determine the movement and location of a handset, accurate to within a few meters, can be invaluable admissible evidence in court.

Evidence obtained from Cell Site Analysis can be combined with other evidence such as CCTV, call data records or observations. This can determine if the accused was in fact at the scene of the crime or to confirm an alibi.  Alternatively, it can track the path of a mobile phone as it moves from location to location.

Using data from mobile phone service providers, our cell site experts can measure actual coverage utilising sophisticated data gathering, positioning and analytical tools. The information gathered is used to generate detailed coverage maps where the service areas of individual cell sites are shown in different colours. Maps are available in various formats including aerial photography, A-Z street maps and OS ranges.

Examples of evidence we can retrieve

Map out areas where a phone was at a specific time, where it frequents or has travelled. For example, this could be of use if the user is visiting a location they shouldn’t be, alleges they were not at a crime scene or has an alibi location that is trying to be confirmed. Detail when parties have communicated with each other and how often. This may be of use when parents are not meant to contact one another.

Whilst this information can be deleted from a phone, the network data is a “golden copy” and cannot be deleted. Network providers store this data for 12 months. Detail when any SIM swapping has taken place, so where someone is moving their SIM card between different handsets. This could be of use if you are trying to identify if someone is hiding a phone from interrogation by the local authority. Detail when more than one handset may be co-locating, for example, if two parents who should not be in contact, travel from one area to another to meet up. CYFOR can also detail when phones are not colocating, which can assist in showing that someone is not in control of a second phone they are accused of being in charge of, for example.