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Abstract
The article introduces a model for the location of meaningful places for mobile telephone users, such as home and work anchor points, using passive mobile positioning data. Passive mobile positioning data is secondary data concerning the location of call activities or handovers in network cells that is automatically stored in the memory of service providers. This data source offers good potential for the monitoring of the geography and mobility of the population, since mobile phones are widespread, and similar standardized data can be used around the globe. We developed the model and tested it with 12 months' data collected by EMT, Estonia's largest mobile service provider, covering more than 0.5 million anonymous respondents. Modeling results were compared with population register data; this revealed that the developed model described the geography of the population relatively well, and can hence be used in geographical and urban studies. This approach also has potential for the development of location-based services such as targeting services or geographical infrastructure.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank EMT Ltd., Ericsson Ltd., Positium LBS and all the people who participated in the experiment for their cooperation. The project was funded by Target Funding Project No. 0182143s02 of the Ministry of Education and Science and Grant of Estonian Science Foundation No. ETF7562 and Estonian Information Technology Foundation (EITSA).