FCC v. AT&T · ¶19

AT&T and Verizon (collectively, the carriers) are cellular service providers. Cellular service allows customers, using cell phones connected to the carriers' networks, to talk, text, and exchange data with one another. To receive cellular service, the phone must periodically connect to—or “ping”— the nearest cell site in the carrier's network. See Carpenter v. United States, 585 U. S. 296, 300–301 (2018). Every ping registers the phone's location. See ibid. Carriers know the locations of their cell sites, so they can be reasonably confdent about the location of any given customer's cell phone at any given time. See id., at 301. And because cell phones are generally with their owners—almost as “fea- ture[s] of human anatomy”—the carriers in turn have a good sense of where their customers are located. Id., at 311 (quoting Riley v. California, 573 U. S. 373, 385 (2014)).

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