I used to work for the Law Enforcement Relations department in a large cell phone company. All sorts of stuff is recorded and stored for at least seven years. This includes your location even if you are not using your phone (as long as it is turned on and you have a signal).
But they don’t record the content of voice calls without a warrant.
Yep, data like call location and times are just a few bits and is already recorded for billing purposes so that would just be about data retention and access. The logistics of recording every single phone call and storing that would be unbelievably large. I think I may play a bit with it and figure out how much data storage is required for even a day’s worth of phone calls.
Yes that would have been my understanding as well. All data but not all content. I work in the industry as well. However either my knowledge is lacking (possible due to need to know restrictions) or these people are confused about the difference between call data and call content. Not sure. I know it is certainly possible to record everything but it would involve significant costs in facilities, shadow network and recording equipment