Telia partnered with engineering company Ramboll to use the operator’s network data to provide authorities with accurate information on the movement of people during the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

In a statement, Telia said the partnership would tap into its Crowd Insights tool, which provides anonymised information on people’s movements to aid decision making by authorities.

The companies have previoulsy cooperated in various regional and tourism development projects in Finland. The latest agreement will extend to providing mobility data in transport, and urban planning tourism development projects implemented by public administrations and companies.

Their latest deal initially also covers Finland, but will be expanded to the pair’s other Nordic markets.

Tapio Leva, senior business manager at Telia Finland, explained there were “significant” changes in mobility behaviour which were having an effect on transport planning, urban development and tourism.

“With our Crowd Insights service, we are able to provide valuable information about crowd movements for different needs. The Covid-19 crisis has shown the importance of fast and reliable data to support decision making,” said Leva.

Telia noted its tool was based on mobile network data, which was aggregated automatically before use to protect personal privacy and could never be traced back to an individual.