Analysis of mobile phone call data of İstanbul residents

Abstract

In this chapter, we analyze call detail records of subscribers of a major cellular network provider in Turkey with a focus on subscribers that reside in Istanbul. We consider a sample of 10,000 opt-in subscribers, chosen proportionally to the population density of each district of Istanbul. The anonymized cell phone usage data for 6 weeks are combined with demographic and subscription package attributes. Our methodology consists of data retrieval and cleaning, analysis and visualization. The analysis aims to extract information to be used mainly in disaster preparedness, marketing and public service design, and is categorized under: 1) understanding call habits in terms of call duration and call location with respect to gender and age categories, 2) tracking population density changes by time and district, 3) segmentation of people visiting specified locations, 4) information on mobility of disabled subscribers, and 5) international travel patterns by roaming data analysis.