USB can be used for lots of phones. You should be much more specific. Is it an old-school Nokia or a state-of-the-art iPhone or other newish device?

On Linux, there are several OpenSource projects available to communicate with USB or bluetooth phones. For old-school phones, there is e.g. libgnokii which works on more than just Nokia phones. The GSM::Gnokii features a perl interface to that library. It enables you to fetch all the required information.