Passive Mobile Phone Dataset to Construct Origin-destination Matrix: Potentials and Limitations

Mobile phone operators produce enormous amounts of data. In this paper we present applications performed with a dataset (communication events + handover and Location Area Up-date) collected by the operator Orange from 31 March to 11 April 2009 for the whole Paris Region. Trips are deduced from the spatio-temporal trajectory of devices through a hypothesis of stationarity within a Location Area in order to define activities. Trips are then aggregated in an origin-destination matrix which is compared with traditional data (census data and household travel survey).