Evidences from Cellphone Big Data Applications for Urban Mobility Needs: Case Studies in Italy

he use of big data has been radically increasing in the last years. In fact, when users’ privacy is guaranteed, big data can provide an effective, even custom- ized, answer to the increasing users’ needs. A peculiar typology of big data are mobile phone records, which are often recorded automatically by telecommunica- tion operators for billing, management, and network maintenance purposes. Nowadays, they are considered a pertinent tool for understanding how people use city’s infrastructures from the point of view of mobility, consumption, and environ- mental impacts, enabling a better comprehension of urban phenomena if compared with the possibilities offered by traditional methods such as travel surveys. This work will focus on some applications, definitions, and metrics of cellphone big data by showing a few case studies in Italy. The results of this work will demonstrate some possible solutions in overcoming the traditional drawbacks and limitations of mobile phone big data. Moreover, thanks to the pervasive and ubiquitous presence of connected devices in everyday life, they are a priceless source of information for planning purposes and to enhance smart city and transportation.