The first product out of the gates is Smart Steps, which takes anonymised and aggregated network data and analyses the factors that influence the number of people visiting a location at a given time.

It’s being pitched at retailers as a way to help them determine the best locations and most appropriate formats for new stores while helping tweak existing local offers, while local councils might use it to measure increases in foot traffic in particular locations as a result of new developments like car parks, farmers markets and late-night shopping.

The company said that traffic management and fraud protection are two other possible areas of product development, which is being supported by research group GfK through a global strategic agreement.

Telefónica has more than 300m customers in 25 countries and owns brands including Movistar, O2 and Vivo.

Stephen Shurrock, chief commercial officer of Telefónica Digital, said: “Big data is one of the key building blocks of the digital economy. Approached in a smart and responsible way it has the potential to transform every part of business and society – providing economic growth and improving people’s lives.”

Telefónica isn’t the only telecoms firm to see the insight potential of its network data. Last week Verizon Wireless in the US launched Precision Market Insights to offer data analytics services to support outdoor media measurement, venue audience measurement and retail site analytics.