Methodological guide on the use of mobile phone data: Measuring the Information Society (SDG ICT indicators)

This Handbook was prepared by the ICT Data and Analytics Division (IDA) within the Digital Knowledge Hub Department (DKH) of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of the International Telecommunication Union. It is part of the ITU project on the Use of Mobile Phone Big Data for Measuring the Information Society. It was drawn up in the context of the work done by the Measuring the Information Society sub-group of the Task Team on Mobile Phone Data under the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UN-CEBD).

The authors of the Handbook are experts on mobile phone big data led by Esperanza Magpantay with support from Fredrik Eriksson (ITU) and from Positium, Estonia (Gerttu Pilsas, Siim Esko, Erki Saluveer); Cetic.br|NIC.br, Brazil (Alexandre Barbosa, Marcelo Pitta, Winston Oyadomari); the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Brazil (Maria do Carmo Bueno); and Statistics Indonesia (Titi Kanti Lestari, Alfatihah Reno). The authors would like to thank the national statistical offices of Indonesia and Brazil and their staff for their contributions to the work of the task team and for their efforts to access the data and ensure implementation of the project with mobile positioning data in both countries. The report was peer reviewed by Scarlett Fondeur Gil from UNCTAD.

Table of Contents

• Abbreviations
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Project background
• 3. Scope of the Handbook
• 4. Accessing the data
• 5. Data sources
  • 5.1. Data from the mobile network operator
    • 5.1.1. Description of mobile phone data (CDR/IPDRs)
    • 5.1.2. Assuring quality of mobile phone data
  • 5.2. Reference data
    • 5.2.1. Local Administrative Units
    • 5.2.2. World Population
    • 5.2.3. Cell data
    • 5.2.4. Digital elevation model
    • 5.2.5. Household surveys and microdata
• 6. Data processing
  • 6.1. Data processing models
  • 6.2. Ensuring privacy and data protection
• 7. Calculating SDG indicators
  • 7.1. Proportion of individuals using the Internet (SDG 17.8.1)
    • 7.1.1. Rationale and definition
    • 7.1.2. Defining place of residence
    • 7.1.3. Indicator calculation
    • 7.1.4. Quality assurance of the resulting indicator
  • 7.2. Proportion of the population covered by a mobile network (SDG 9.c.1)
    • 7.2.1. Rationale and definition
    • 7.2.2. Methods to calculate network coverage
      • a. Flat method
      • b. Viewshed method
    • 7.2.3. Indicator calculation
    • 7.2.4. Quality assurance
• 8. Conclusions
• Glossary
• Reference

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Citation: Handbook on the use of mobile phone big data for measuring the information society. Geneva: International Telecommunication Union, 2022. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

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