Multi-MNO project

The European Statistical System (ESS) considers Mobile Network Operator (MNO) data as one of the most promising new ‘big data’ sources for future statistics. The production of official statistics based on MNO data has the potential to provide considerable societal value, and Eurostat is leading the ESS efforts in the field (for an overview of recent Eurostat activities in the field of MNO data refer to the MNOdata4OS page).   

In January 2023, following an open call for tenders (ESTAT/2022/OP/0001), Eurostat has awarded the service contract  “Development, implementation and demonstration of a reference processing pipeline for the future production of official statistics based on Multiple Mobile Network Operator data (TSS multi-MNO)”.

The project is part of the current innovation efforts within the ESS Innovation Agenda and in line with the recent position paper on “Reusing Mobile Network Operator data for Official Statistics: the case for a common methodological framework for the European Statistical System” (2023 edition). 

This project is complemented by other ESS activities in the field of MNO data - see the MNOdata4OS page for an overview -  – and, in particular, by the ESSnet research grant project “Trusted Smart Statistics: methodological developments based on new data sources” which focuses on integrating MNO data with other non-MNO data sources. 

In a nutshell, the project aims to develop the initial version of a fully open methodological standard for the processing of MNO data for official statistics, based on a selection of reference use-cases. 

The project work includes:

• the definition and detailed specification of a methodology and quality standard; 
• the implementation and release of an open-source reference implementation of the proposed methodology; and 
• the demonstration of its feasibility based on real data from multiple MNOs across multiple EU countries. 

The detailed aims and goals of the project are described in the Technical Specifications. 

The service contract (ESTAT 2021.0400) was awarded to a consortium consisting of the following members and subcontractors:

• Consortium leader: GOPA (Germany)
• Industry partners: NOMMON (Spain) and POSITIUM (Estonia)
• National Statistical Institutes: ISTAT (Italy) and CBS (Netherlands)

MNOs: Orange Spain, Vodafone Spain, Vodafone Italy, A1 Slovenia, POST Luxembourg.

1. The project kick-off meeting took place on 8th February 2023. The slides presented by Eurostat, describing goals and expectations, are  publicly available here: multimno-kickoff-eurostat
2. A short introductory presentation was given at this UN webinar  on 16th February 2023. Find the slides at this link. 
3. Preliminary project results, including details on the methodology were presented at the NetMob2023 in Madrid (4-6 October 2023). The slides presented are available here.
4. Slides from the kick-off meeting of the Advisory Board on 15/1/2024 are available here.
5. Slides from an internal meeting with partner MNOs on 26/2/2024 are available here. 
6. Slides from the physical meeting of the Advisory Board on 6/5/2024 are available here.  

During the course of the project, the results will be reported to the wide public in the sections of this webpage, which will also allow for channeling exchanges and opinions via the Discussion Group.    

For further info on the project contact us at: multimno-project@gopa.de