credit reporting

I have reviewed my credit report to find that Midland took over a very old cell phone acct that I owed on. The last active date is 02/2006 and then it states opened 08/2008. I am assuming they took over the collection 08/2008. Does the statue of limitations start when they took it over or when the original debt was added to my credit? Mostly I am concerned because they documented it as a 90+days late as of 06/2012. Shouldn't it state simply that this is a charge off or in collections, as this is not a recent account? Can they legally do that? It makes it look like this is a recent account that I haven't paid on.