Since 2015, the Moscow Mayor’s Office has been buying geoanalytics from mobile companies who can track the movement of their customers via their SIM cards. Based on the companies’ data, Moscow is adjusting its public transit system and infrastructure.
The Department of Information Technology has spent RUR 516 mio ($7.8 mio) from the Moscow budget, including RUR 101.8 mio ($1.5 mio) in 2018. The Government Analytics Center serves as an intermediary between the department and mobile companies. The center accumulates, processes and stores the data from the mobile companies in order to draw up prompt reports for the city officials. The analyzed data includes anonymized statistics of people’s movements. Moscow and the Moscow Region are divided into 500 m by 500 m sections. Home is identified as a place where the person spends the night on a regular basis while work is identified as a place where the person spends most of their time between 10 am and 5 pm. If neither can be identified it means that the person has to move around for work. If on weekdays a person commutes to and from the region, he or she is considered a guest worker.
Mobile companies also provide officials with the data on who spends more than 50 hours per month in the suburbs during weekends and holidays. They can also identify tourists who only stay in the region briefly and do not work.
According to a Tele2 representative, some businesses also buy geoanalytical data. It can be helpful to determine whether a store in a specific location will be commercially viable. Geoanalytics also helps to develop text targeting for small and medium-sized businesses.