Knowing how thousands of people are going to move in very closed time slots is important so that all types of services work in the city without problems. The Mobile World Congress is one of the city's annual events that test infrastructure and its operation. Telefónica has begun to carry out a study of the time mobility of the congressmen that allows us to determine, for example, that the areas of l'Eixample with buildings by Gaudí – La Pedrera, Casa Batlló and Sagrada Família – are one of the main places to visit when work finishes at the Fira Granvia facilities.
Telefónica has a tool, the Smart Steps program, which has been used for years to analyze mobility data from the antenna connections of mobile devices. The company is analyzing the data from the current edition of the Mobile World Congress. From the first day, last Monday, things have been determined such as that the majority of congressmen usually go to the Fira in the morning, but not right when the MWC opens its doors, because the peak of visitors is recorded towards noon.
The Smart Steps analysis has also detected a peak in visitors between 3 and 4 p.m. That is to say, a part of the congressmen go to the MWC after having lunch out. Mass departure time is around 5 p.m. The majority moves towards the center.
The largest group, 14%, goes to the Dreta de l'Eixample area, where there are not only unique buildings, but also commercial areas, such as Passeig de Gràcia and Plaza Catalunya. After cultural visits and shopping, for dinner, the radius of action of Mobile visitors expands to Gràcia, Poble Sec and Raval, where 16% of them are concentrated. For accommodation, 15% of visitors stay in Poble Sec and the Marina del Port Vell, in addition to the neighborhoods closest to the Fira. 12% stay in hotels in Eixample.
All this mobility data of the Mobile attendees is obtained from each of the mobile connections with the telephone antennas. During the pandemic, they were used by the Government to determine the mobility of the population and decide aspects such as confinement zones based on real data. In all cases, the data is anonymized from the beginning, so it cannot be studied in reverse to follow anyone. The company emphasizes that everything is done under the guidelines of the EU general data protection regulation (GDPR).
Elena Gil, director of artificial intelligence and big data at Telefonica Tech, explains that Smart Steps “processes the data from the mobile phones of all clients that have to be connected to the networks, to the different antennas.” The platform takes the millions of connection data, “anonymizes each of those points, characterizes them, extrapolates them and then groups them together.”
