Marc Debusschere, Statistics Belgium Value from mobile phone data A mutually beneficial partnership between a network operator and a statistical office Marc Debusschere, Statistics Belgium Ljubljana, 14 October 2016 Statbel.fgov.be

Overview 1. Context: the challenge of big data 2. A collaboration project 3. Some results 4. Emerging business model 5. Lessons learned

Context: the challenge of big data Data explosion: big data Immense increase in volume, velocity, variety (complexity) ‘Digital footprint’ of persons and ‘things’ Specifically: mobile phone data Byproduct of operating mobile networks Considerable investment needed to ‘prepare’ them Owned by mobile network operators: private & profit-oriented! Challenge: from data to information! Official statistics: the ‘third data revolution’ surveys => administrative data => big data Network operators: for network optimisation & high-value commercialisation

A collaboration project Statistics Belgium, Proximus, Eurostat, JRC Objective Jointly explore mobile phone data, focus on modest but concrete and quick results, with the ultimate aim of developing statistical and commercial use cases combining mobile phone and statistical data Timing Start December 2015, still ongoing First results foreseen and delivered end of April 2016 F. De Meersman, G. Seynaeve, M. Debusschere, P. Lusyne, P. Dewitte, Y. Baeyens, A. Wirthmann, C. Demunter, F. Reis, H.I. Reuter (2016): Assessing the Quality of Mobile Phone Data as a Source of Statistics, Q2016 Conference paper (pdf download, http://www.ine.es/q2016/docs/q2016Final00163.pdf) Several other papers published or in pipeline

A collaboration project (continued) Step by step approach Focus first on actual present population Next: resident population (via ‘usual place of residence’) commuting, labour mobility, labour migration (adding ‘work place’) tourism, migration, time use, … (adding ‘usual environment’), … Innovative Using network signals rather than CDRs: observations x 10 ! Combining mobile phone data and statistical datasets No privacy issues (yet) Aggregates Coupled via geocoding

Some results Belgium: population density per km² based on mobile phone data (left) and 2011 Census (right).

Some results (continued) Cells identified as ‘work’, ‘residential’ or ‘commuting’ on a weekday, with mapping.

Some results (continued) ‘Work’, ‘residential’ and ‘commuting’ cells in the region Brussels-Leuven

Emerging business model cooperation network operators & official statistics Mobile network operator Owns data, has big data infrastructure, technical expertise Needs exploitation for network optimisation and commercialising Lacks additonal data and experience to turn data into information Statistical institute Has geocoded datasets, statistical & domain expertise Wants statistics faster, cheaper, less burdensome, more detailed Lacks (access to) data, metadata, knowledge, infrastructure Complementary contributions and needs, non- competing goals  Mutually advantageous collaboration! The statistical system of Belgium is a very complex one. It is the result of decisions related to the evolution of the Belgian federal system and to the economic governance of the state. A long history of political decisions made the system evolve from a monolithic block to a system which is decentralised functionally as well as regionally. Functional decentralisation was implemented in 1994, when the federal government set up the National Accounts Institute. Regional decentralisation is the result of a far-reaching reform of the State in the last decades, when the majority of the competences of the State were attributed to the regions. One aspect of it has to be stressed: In Belgium, federal law does not overrule regional law. Keep this in mind when we come to the legal context of the new statistical system. Up to this year however, official statistics were not regionalised. They remained a prerogative of the federal level. Notwithstanding, the regions have recently set up their own statistical institutions.

Emerging business model versus alternatives Legal compulsion No legal framework (yet) Huge investment, not reasonable to impose External integrator of mobile phone data Not subject to statistical legislation and code of practice Competitor for official statistics when directly serving users Cannot integrate other statistical datasets for higher value Buying mobile phone data Against principle of data as public good … and no money! The statistical system of Belgium is a very complex one. It is the result of decisions related to the evolution of the Belgian federal system and to the economic governance of the state. A long history of political decisions made the system evolve from a monolithic block to a system which is decentralised functionally as well as regionally. Functional decentralisation was implemented in 1994, when the federal government set up the National Accounts Institute. Regional decentralisation is the result of a far-reaching reform of the State in the last decades, when the majority of the competences of the State were attributed to the regions. One aspect of it has to be stressed: In Belgium, federal law does not overrule regional law. Keep this in mind when we come to the legal context of the new statistical system. Up to this year however, official statistics were not regionalised. They remained a prerogative of the federal level. Notwithstanding, the regions have recently set up their own statistical institutions.

Lessons learned: do’s and don’ts for official statistics … Find the window of opportunity Operator who has invested in data but not obsessed with selling only Talk to the right people (if you have a choice …) Business development/innovation rather than research, marketing, legal Invest in geocoded datasets and data science Convince operators of their value to them Guarantee absolute confidentiality and build trust Be attentive to legal issues, especially privacy Find (international) partners Start low-threshold quick-result exploration project

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