That was Philippine Daily Inquirer's headliner today.
Smart Communications' response:
“We don’t store messages anymore,” said Ramon Isberto, Smart Communications spokesperson, as he explained that its network has been tweaked to only keep text messages of subscribers for one day if a subscriber is “offline” or not connected to the mobile network.
Globe's:
In a separate telephone interview, Jones Campos, spokesperson for Globe Telecom, also said that the mobile network provider is not storing text messages sent by subscribers.
Then some "expert" showboats.
A mobile network expert who declined to be named said that short messaging service (SMS), which is the service that allows millions of Filipino subscribers to send text messages using their mobile phone, is a “store and forwarding” facility.
Technically, text messages are stored, he said.
The last statement is misleading, which may prompt the Senate to demand something that may no longer exist, thereby causing further delays. Yes, SMS, like email, is a store-and-forward service, which is the layman's term for asynchronous communication. What the so called expert failed to qualify is that once a message is forwarded to the recipient's handset, that message is purged from the storage. Only the transaction details remain; when the message was sent, from whom to whom--but not the actual body of the message. This is generally true for intra-network messaging, between subscribers from the same network.
Inter-network messaging, on the other hand, is a different matter. Some mobile operators interconnect directly; others, go through a third party gateway, network aggregator or SMS hubs. If Gaite and Lozada are subscribers of different mobile operators, then there's a slim chance that the intermediating gateway/service provider may have a log of the inter-carrier messages. But given the large volume, and the time that has lapsed since the alleged message exchange, it is unlikely that the third party gateway archived messages that far back (over a month) into the past.
But even if the original incriminating message was still in Lozada's handset, it can still be argued that the message was fabricated. Phones are similar to computers; they have file systems, hence, folders--inbox, drafts, outbox, sent, et al. With a computer and cable or bluetooth connection, it is possible to put messages into those folders as if they were actual, real messages. In such a case, the Senate would need the transaction logs from the operators to corroborate the messages' authenticity; that the messages passed through the network, and not merely planted in the phone.
