A subpoena to Onvoy Spectrum LLC is submitted by email to LEArequests@sinch.com, handled by the compliance team at parent company Sinch, and governed by the Stored Communications Act. Before you draft one, understand what you will get back: Onvoy Spectrum is a wholesale carrier, so its subscriber records usually identify the downstream service provider assigned to a phone number, not the person using it.1Sinch. Law Enforcement Agency Support Guidelines
What Onvoy Spectrum Actually Holds
Onvoy Spectrum’s direct customers are other carriers, VoIP providers, and large enterprises. Its systems route and terminate voice calls and text messages between networks, acting as a transit point. That shapes everything about what a subpoena can produce.
A basic subscriber subpoena returns the name, address, and length of service for the wholesale customer assigned to the target number, which tells you which provider to serve next. Call detail records cover originating and terminating numbers, dates, times, and durations for voice calls, plus timestamps and routing data for text messages. Number assignment history can sometimes show which wholesale customer controlled a number during a given date range, since numbers move through porting, disconnect, and reassignment. Connection metadata and, in some cases, geolocation data tied to a connection are also available.1Sinch. Law Enforcement Agency Support Guidelines
What the company generally does not have: call audio, text message bodies, voicemail recordings, end-user billing records, payment methods, equipment identifiers, SIM card numbers, end-user IP addresses, and GPS location data for individual subscribers.2Sinch. Civil Subpoena Policy Those sit with the downstream provider. If your target is an end user, treat Onvoy Spectrum’s response as a pointer, not a destination.
How to Submit the Subpoena
All criminal legal demands (subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants) go to LEArequests@sinch.com. That inbox is only for new submissions. Status inquiries, portal questions, and resubmissions sent there can delay processing.1Sinch. Law Enforcement Agency Support Guidelines
Each submission must include four things:
- A completed cover page from sinch.com/legal/law-enforcement-support/. Fill it digitally, save it as its own PDF, and attach it alongside the legal demand. Handwritten, scanned, or combined files risk rejection.
- Target phone numbers listed on the cover page with all non-numeric characters removed. No hyphens, parentheses, or periods.
- A target date range. Numbers port between providers and get reassigned, so every request must specify the dates of interest. Without a stated interval, the company defaults to the period from the issuance date to the response date, which is rarely what an investigator wants.
- A properly formatted subject line listing the response due date first as MM/DD/YY, followed by the agency’s reference number. If the due date falls within five business days, add “URGENT.”
All files must be PDF, with TIFF accepted as a fallback. Submissions that skip the cover page or ignore the formatting rules face delayed processing or outright rejection.1Sinch. Law Enforcement Agency Support Guidelines
Which Legal Instrument You Need
The Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. Chapter 121, sets a tiered system where the sensitivity of the record determines the process required.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC Chapter 121 – Stored Wire and Electronic Communications and Transactional Records Access
Subpoena for Basic Subscriber Information
A federal or state administrative subpoena or grand jury subpoena is enough to obtain basic subscriber information: name, address, phone connection records, length and type of service, subscriber number or network address, and payment method. No separate court approval is required.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC Chapter 121 – Section 2703(c)(2) For Onvoy Spectrum, this returns the wholesale customer tied to the number, not the end user.
Court Order for Transactional Records
Call detail records and other non-content transactional data require a court order under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d). The government must present specific and articulable facts showing reasonable grounds to believe the records are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC Chapter 121 – Section 2703(d) That standard sits below probable cause but above the relevance threshold for a subpoena.
Search Warrant for Content
Stored communication content (text messages, voicemail, or any other stored electronic communication) requires a search warrant supported by probable cause under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure or equivalent state procedures.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC Chapter 121 – Section 2703(a) Onvoy Spectrum rarely holds content, but the warrant requirement applies to anything that does exist on its systems.
Warrant for Historical Location Data
The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Carpenter v. United States held that accessing historical cell-site location information is a Fourth Amendment search requiring a warrant supported by probable cause.7Supreme Court of the United States. Carpenter v. United States, 585 US 296 (2018) A 2703(d) order used to be enough for many agencies; it is not anymore. The Court left room for exigent circumstances and did not reach real-time tracking or short-term monitoring, but any request for historical geolocation data from Onvoy Spectrum should rest on a warrant. A 2703(d) order for location invites a suppression challenge.
Preservation Requests and Short Retention Windows
Send a preservation request early. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f), a provider must preserve records on request from a government entity, pending legal process.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2703 – Required Disclosure of Customer Communications or Records The initial period is 90 days, renewable for another 90 days by a second request. No judicial approval is needed. A written request from the investigating agency is enough.
This matters because retention is short. Sinch’s privacy notice (updated December 2025) states that service data used for fraud protection and threat detection, which includes routing data, messaging metadata, and IP addresses, is retained for about one week unless a legal obligation requires longer archiving.9Sinch. Privacy Notice Other service data categories, like logs maintained for service continuity, follow information security best practices without a specific published timeframe. Waiting even a few weeks to begin legal process can mean the metadata is gone.
Emergency Requests
When someone faces an immediate threat of death or serious physical injury, 18 U.S.C. § 2702(c)(4) lets a provider voluntarily disclose customer records (not content) when it believes in good faith that an emergency requires disclosure without delay.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2702 – Voluntary Disclosure of Customer Communications or Records
Onvoy Spectrum handles emergency requests through a dedicated web form at sinch.com/legal/exigent-circumstances. Do not send emergency requests by email. By submitting the form, the requesting agent certifies that the emergency is real, that the agency lacks time to obtain legal process, and that the agency will follow up with a formal legal demand as soon as circumstances allow.1Sinch. Law Enforcement Agency Support Guidelines That follow-up obligation is not optional. The company conditions its response on it.
Non-Disclosure Orders
Under 18 U.S.C. § 2705, the government can delay customer notification and can obtain a court order directing Onvoy Spectrum not to disclose the legal demand.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2705 – Delayed Notice A court will grant one if there is reason to believe that notifying the target would endanger someone, cause flight, lead to destruction of evidence, result in witness intimidation, or otherwise seriously jeopardize the investigation. The initial delay is up to 90 days, with extensions available in 90-day increments. When the delay expires, the government must notify the customer by registered or first-class mail, explaining what was obtained, when, and why notice was delayed.
Cost Reimbursement
Federal law entitles the company to reimbursement for reasonable costs of searching for, assembling, and producing records. The fee is set by agreement between the government entity and the company; if they cannot agree, a court decides.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2706 – Cost Reimbursement Standard telephone toll records and listings obtained by subpoena under § 2703 are the exception: no reimbursement obligation unless the request is unusually large or imposes an undue burden. Routine requests for a handful of numbers over a defined range often cost nothing. Broad requests over many numbers or long periods are more likely to trigger a fee discussion.
Civil Subpoenas Follow a Different Process
If you are a party in civil litigation rather than a law enforcement officer, none of the above applies to how you serve the company. Onvoy Spectrum does not accept civil subpoenas by email or fax. A third-party civil subpoena must be physically served on the registered agent or at the corporate address: Attention: Legal – Civil Subpoena Compliance, 1 North Wacker Drive, Suite 2500, Chicago, IL 60606. U.S. Mail, overnight delivery, or courier service are accepted.2Sinch. Civil Subpoena Policy
Processing fees are due at service, by check payable to “Inteliquent”:
- 1–2 phone numbers: $50
- 3–5 phone numbers: $75
- 6–9 phone numbers: $100
The company typically needs about 15 business days after receiving a valid subpoena and the fee before producing records, because it must notify its wholesale customers first. For civil call detail records (rather than just customer-identifying information), the company requires a protective order limiting access to the parties for litigation purposes only.2Sinch. Civil Subpoena Policy Expect objections to civil subpoenas seeking end-user details the company does not have, including billing records, payment information, text message content, IP addresses, and GPS location data.