Jakarta - The use of mobile phones has become a daily basis for people, not only in Indonesia, but also throughout the world. Recorded in 2018 more than five billion people worldwide are registered in mobile services (source: GSMA intelligence). This was revealed by the Head of BPS, Kecuk Suhariyanto at the opening of the Regional Workshop on the Use of Mobile Phone Data for Official Statistics (11/6). BPS together with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) initiated a seminar on cell phone data utilization by inviting participants from 12 countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Philippines , Mongolia, China, Nepal, Georgia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea).
"The digital footprint of cellular telephone users can be measured and monitored to provide quality and actual data," Kecuk said. In BPS itself, data originating from cellular telephones, also known as Mobile Positioning Data (MPD), have been used since last October 2016, precisely for calculating foreign tourists, especially in border areas. In the past year, BPS developed mobile phone data that is applied to the calculation of domestic tourists and mobility statistics.
This seminar, according to Gemma Van Halderen, Director of Statistic Division at UNESCAP, aims to find out the usefulness of mobile phone data for official statistics. "To do your job better and more efficient," he said. This is because not all participating countries have used mobile phone data in their regulations. The seminar aims to introduce what the mobile phone data is and what data can be obtained from there. how to pre-process mobile phone data and how to combine it with traditional statistics derived from censuses, surveys or administrative data.
According to Tanja Senersen, one of the speakers from UNESCAP, big data is a term that mentions very large amounts of data, both in terms of quantity and diversity. "Big data creates challenges for official statistics," he said. All of these must refer to the 17 points of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
"Hopefully, all countries in the Asia-Pacific region can use mobile phone data as one of the data sources. And in the future we will have comparable data, based on the same data source and the same methods, "concluded Kecuk.
