Call Detail Record Retention

Document Metadata

Category: Compliance & Data Retention / CDR (Call Detail Record) Retention Policies
Audience: Administrators, Compliance Teams, Support Engineers
Difficulty: Intermediate
Time Required: Approximately 20–30 minutes
Prerequisites: Active ConnexCS account with access to the reporting/archiving modules, understanding of CDR formats and retention regulations in your operating jurisdiction
Related Topics: Data Retention & Archiving Policy, Logging & Audit Trails, Privacy & Data Protection – GDPR
Next Steps: After reviewing the CDR retention guide, map your internal retention periods to regulatory requirements (e.g., 6 months, 12 months, 7 years), configure archival/storage policies in the ConnexCS system, and schedule periodic purging/cleanup jobs while ensuring safe backup of any data needed for audits or investigations.

A call Detail Record (CDR) is a detailed record of all telephonic calls that pass through a telephone exchange, telecom equipment or communication platform in a given period.

A CDR contains information such as time, duration, number of the caller, destination number, call completion status, etc. about the call.

Various telecom regulatory authorities around the world require all carriers and VoIP operators to keep their CDR data for a specified period.

It's done for security and audit purposes and has to be made available to relevant authorities when directed to do so in a court of law.

What Should You Know?

Retaining CDR data is important to comply with various telecom regulations you're subject to. In case your VoIP operations across nations, you would need to comply with the CDR retention requirements of all concerned authorities.

How Long Should You Keep Your CDR Data?

As a carrier or VoIP operator, you’re subject to comply with all data retention requirements in your areas of operations. This means complying with several data retention periods.

CDR retention period for major telecom markets are:

UK - 5 Years USA - 3 Years (varies from state to state but the upper limit is 3 years) India - 2 Years

You may either opt for one of two approaches. You can keep all your CDR data for the longest compliance duration or segregate and keep CDR data for specific regions and compliance requirements.

Should You Have Backups?

CDR data is an important collection of information. Loss of this data may result in various legal difficulties for your business. Thus, having more than one backup of your CDR data is advisable.

If you feel this is too much work for you, you can always opt for ConnexCS. We maintain a clean CDR record for all our customers and also ensure those are securely backed up!