Publication Quality of mobile network data - project experience and use cases in official statistics

Date October 17, 2022

Mobile network data are considered a promising new data source, but its quality for use in official statistics has hitherto not been systematically studied. This article provides an overview of the projects using mobile network data which have so far been carried out at the Federal Statistical Office and, based on the generation and processing of the data, describes the major quality aspects. On the basis of this experience, the following conclusion is reached: the data source is well suited for special evaluations of small-area data and for evaluations of very recent data that cannot be made using the existing official data. However, the production of statistics in line with the official quality criteria is currently not possible. A key reason is the lack of legislation permitting access to data of all providers of mobile network data on the German market.

Authors: Younes Saidani, Sarah Bohnensteffen, Sandra Hadam

Article published in "WISTA – Scientific Journal", 5-2022