1. Mobile phone data Belgium State of affairs, datasets, use cases
Marc Debusschere, Statistics Belgium
Madrid, WP5 meeting, 7-8 June 2017
Statbel.fgov.be

2. Overview
1. Present state of affairs 2. Datasets 3. Use cases: target statistical outputs 4. Data processing

3. Project Statbel/Proximus/Eurostat
What went before
Started December 2015
Several datasets made available for population and tourism
10 publications on analyses and business model
Present situation
March 2017: meeting on mobile phone data for statistical and commercial use cases, canceled last minute
embargo (temporary?) on all data deliveries, including commercial ones, while auditing; reasons only informally communicated
What we got out of it
Hugely increased technical knowledge and feel for data
Concrete idea about use cases

4. For instance …
Belgium: population density per km² based on mobile phone data (left) and 2011 Census (right).

5. Other projects & contacts
Academia: UCL/ULB
dynamic population mapping
using Orange dataset (1 year, CDRs, )
Regional authorities
IWEPS (Wallonia): dynamic population mapping (contact 29 June, also intend to use Orange data, maybe paying)
Flanders: Dept. Environment
Potential users (also producing data!)
E.g. Min. Transport, Federal Planning Office, Central Council for the Economy, Belgian Railway company, …
DG Regio project on cross-border activity
Last but not least: WP5 Mobile phone data!

6. Data situation desperate but not serious …
Proximus
Unclear at his moment …
Beyond statistics: own exploitation threatened
Key: privacy issue, reputation fears
Telenet (ex-Base)
No reaction to concrete proposal (November 2016, but prior contacts too)
Very legalistic, risk-aversive outlook (cfr NDA catch-22)
Orange (ex-Mobistar)
Seems to provide data to others (ULB - free, IWEPS - paying?)
But no reaction to concrete proposal (September 2016)

7. The way forward? Defining use cases Implicating stakeholders
Specify statistical product (including validating or supplementing statistics)
Specify data needed
Solve technical and legal issues
Implicating stakeholders
Informing and mobilising potential users
Increasing awareness of issues at policy level
Legal initiatives
General principle (“all your databases are belong to us”)
Domain-specific approaches (e.g. tourism, transport, demography, census, …)

8. Datasets received (Proximus) 1
Device counts per Voronoi cell for points in time
Purpose: exploration, focus on estimating present population and its dynamics
Not using CDRs but signalling data (10 times as frequent)
Some 11,000 cells for Belgian territory (averaging 2,8 km², but diverse!)
One weekday (Thursday 8 Oct. 2015) & one Sunday (11 Oct. 2015)
Recorded every 15’, 96 measurements for each day
See description at

9. Datasets received (Proximus) 2
Proximus SIMs observed outside Belgium during 6-month period
Purpose: explore tourism trips with destination outside Belgium, confront them with official survey-based statistics
Not using CDRs but signalling data (10 times as frequent)
6-month period April 2016 to September 2016
See description at

10. Datasets (Proximus) 3 requested but not (yet) received
Device counts for appr. 11,000 Voronoi cells extrapolated for local market share for each day of the most recent 12-month period, for 45 points in time per day (or, alternatively, for every 15’: 96 points in time)
Purpose: improving census results for living place and workplace (static aspect)
In principle to be repeated at the beginning of every year
Somewhat over 180 million records (or 385 million in the second scenario)

11. Datasets (Proximus) 4 requested but not (yet) received
Cross table of 11,000 most likely living cells x 11,000 most likely work cells based on individually tracked mobile devices in October 2016
Purpose: amend matrix living place-workplace based on administrative data (dynamic aspect)
October is most ‘normal’ month, no school or other holidays
Record consists of living cell, working cell, number of devices and shapefile of both cells
Anonymous, but some cells will have value=1 or low
Theoretically 121 million records, but most with value=0 (when nobody living in a particular cell ‘goes to work’ in a particular other cell)

12. Target statistical outputs
Census population by living place & workplace
Now based on administrative sources with flaws
To be amended using mobile phone data with different flaws
By determining most probable living and working place
Matrix living place x workplace x X
Dynamic population mapping
Other
Mobility, tourism, time use, circular migration, …

13. Data processing None at this moment … no new data available!
Preparing nevertheless:
Trying to solve Proximus issue (Privacy Commission, policy level, …)
Contacts with others (ULB, IWEPS) who seemingly have access to data (from Orange)
Contacts with data science and analytical capacity in academia and public administration (federal and regional)

14. Comments? Questions?