2020/05/06 - With our unique crowdsourcing platform, we analyze anonymized data from hundreds of thousands of mobile phone users with billions of individual measurements, collected by over 1000 apps worldwide. This allows us to obtain a wide variety of findings into people's usage and mobility behavior within just a few days - while completely respecting data security and the privacy of each participant.
The insights gained also offer valuable support in fighting the COVID-virus. For instance, our data analyses help governments, city administrations and the healthcare sector to retrace the effectiveness of lockdowns - whether in Italy, Spain, the USA and Germany as well as in any other country in the world, by revealing several changes. For example, people’s time spent in public places has significantly reduced from January to April. We also see a reduction in speed in city centers indicating a significant decline in traffic on roads and public transport.
According to our analysis of roaming data, many Austrians, Swiss, French and Dutch people have left Germany since March 16, while harvest workers from Romania and Poland have remained.
In addition, we see where mobile phone usage is currently particularly concentrated, how the amount of data accessed has changed to what extent users switch to WIFI and many other aspects. Network operators can use these findings as an important foundation for strategic planning.
Changes can also be observed in app usage: Communication apps continue to be heavily used, apps for home office and home schooling show an increase in usage, while shopping apps are on the decline.
Hakan Ekmen, CEO Telecommunication at umlaut, says: “Our thoughts are with all families and friends who are endangered by the COVID-virus. It is important for us to be able to use our experience to help manage and analyze the crisis. This involves both the assessment and analysis of our digital infrastructures and for example our movement flows, which can be very helpful in preparing for future pandemics. Overall, the network infrastructure in Germany has proven to be very resilient. But our analysis also shows the extent to which the measures taken by governments are having an impact.”
Connect, the international telecommunication test magazine for consumers, reports on the results of our mobility and app usage analyses in its current article (Link available on Friday).
Please read the full German article below.
