Virgin Media O2 Business data to be used by ONS

The anonymised data will be used to support local and national government work, providing insights on areas such as population dynamics, travel patterns and movement trends.

Starting today, Virgin Media O2 Business’ anonymised and aggregated data service, O2 Motion, will be available on the Integrated Data Service (IDS).

The IDS is a cloud-based cross-government data sharing service delivered by ONS to help achieve faster and more efficient decision-making across key policy areas.   

The integration of O2 Motion would provide IDS with data to help address complex societal challenges facing public health, regional growth, climate change, jobs and skills. 

O2 Motion data will also be integrated with ONS surveys and administrative data sources to create a series of publications covering topics like small area population estimates.

The publications will be accessible on the ONS website as part of a regular release, which will be publicly available.

The IDS platform and data releases are current in public Beta and will scale over the coming months, with O2 Motion data already available on the platform and updated on a weekly basis.

Geoff Wappett, head of artificial intelligence 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.”