The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has selected Virgin Media O2 Business as a strategic partner for providing mobility data to the Integrated Data Service (IDS).
The company said the data has now become available on the IDS – which brings together data for analysis to support policy decisions and service improvements – to provide insights on population dynamics, travel patterns and other trends.
Accredited researchers will be able to access aggregated and anonymous O2 mobility findings on the IDS, removing the need for additions data agreements.
The data will also be integrated with ONS data surveys and administrative data sources to create a series of publications on topics such as small area population estimates. These will be accessible through the ONS website as part of its regular releases.
Virgin Media O2 said this will empower policy makers, researchers and the public to make informed decisions on various issues.
ONS plans to scale up the IDS platform over the coming months with a pipeline of new capabilities and data.
Building blocks
Dominic Hale, interim deputy director of strategy for the Integrated Data Programme at ONS, said on LinkedIn: “The Integrated Data Service is providing the building blocks to enable greater data sharing across the public sector. However, what's perhaps less well known is its ability to share other data. So, I'm delighted to relay the news that Virgin Media 02's Motion data is now available for use within the IDS.
“This is such an exciting time for the UK government’s data sharing agenda, and we should not be limited to solely using government data when making the decisions that count towards improving lives. It's great that the IDS is bringing together ready to use data from across sectors that will be used to provide greater insights, leading to better outcomes for all of us.”
Geoff Wappet, head of AI and data insights at Virgin Media O2 Business, said: “Generated from billions of daily network events, our mobile data will provide governmental organisations and officials with reliable information to inform their work addressing major societal challenges at pace. Beyond numbers, the IDS platform and our wider work with ONS will ensure quality insights are easily accessible to support data-driven decision making.”
Update: ONS has indicated that learnings from taking the Virgin Media O2 data will feed into any further provision of non-government data to the platform.
A spokesperson said: "The team is engaging with a wide range of stakeholders across government to better understand their data needs and will prioritise the acquisition of government and non-government data in response to the information gathered through this work."
