Cellular (4G/5G) network analytics
Understand movement across whole districts and open outdoor areas using anonymised, aggregated mobile-network data. Wide-area flows and catchment, reaching where Wi-Fi and sensors can't.
Operator-grade 4G/5G network data, wide-area reach, fully anonymous.
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Key benefits
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Wide-area coverage
Measure flows across entire districts, streets and open outdoor spaces, not just indoor venues or single doorways.
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Privacy-first
Based on anonymised, aggregated network data. No individuals are identified or tracked.
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Catchment & origin
Understand where visitors travel from and how they move between areas, the basis for planning, siting and outdoor advertising.
How it works
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Source
The input is anonymised, aggregated mobile-network data, with no app and no device-level tracking.
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Aggregate
Movement is measured as flows across large areas, never as individuals.
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Analyse
The statistical engine turns aggregated movement into counts, catchment and travel patterns at city scale.
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Deliver
Metrics arrive through the same API and dashboards as every other Bumbee Labs method.
What data you get from cellular
Cellular is Bumbee Labs' wide-area method, built for scale outdoors. Typical metrics:
- Visitor count and flows across districts and corridors
- Origin / catchment, where visitors travel from
- Travel patterns between separate sites and areas
- Peaks & lows and trends at city scale
For indoor behaviour, zone-level dwell and exact entrance counts, combine cellular with Wi-Fi and sensors. See the method-by-method grid.
Footfall where other methods can’t reach
Some questions are too big for a single building. To understand how people move through a whole city centre, along a high street, or past outdoor advertising, and where they came from, you need wide-area coverage. Cellular (4G/5G) network analytics uses anonymised, aggregated mobile-network data to measure those flows: privacy-first, and at a scale Wi-Fi and sensors aren’t built for.
When the question is a whole district
Wi-Fi and sensors are excellent inside and around a venue, but they stop at its edges. Total flows along the streets, which areas draw people, where your visitors travel from: for questions like these you need a method that sees the wide outdoors. Cellular network analytics fills exactly that gap, and because the data is anonymised and aggregated, scale never means surveillance.
Where it fits best
- City centres & smart cities: model flows and catchment across a whole district.
- Outdoor / DOOH advertising: size the audience moving past outdoor surfaces.
- Transport corridors: understand movement between hubs and the areas they serve.
The same catchment and flow data also de-risks expansion decisions: site selection analysis shows how candidate locations are compared on real movement.
Part of a hybrid
Cellular pairs naturally with our other methods in a hybrid setup: cellular for the wide view, Wi-Fi and sensors for precision indoors and at the door. → See how the methods stack up on the data deliverables page.
Cellular vs other counting methods
Every method has its territory. Cellular owns the wide outdoors; bring in Wi-Fi and sensors where indoor detail or door-level precision matters.
| Capability | Wi-Fi | Camera & 3D | Cellular |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole-space coverage | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Exact in/out at a door | Partial | Yes | No |
| Real-time occupancy | Partial | Yes | No |
| Paths & flows between zones | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| Dwell time | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Catchment / origin | No | No | Yes |
| Uses your existing hardware | Yes | No | Yes |
| Privacy-first, DPA-approved | Yes | Yes | Yes |
- Full
- Partial
- Not available
Curious what this looks like for your venue?
Compliant where it counts
City-scale measurement still rests on the only footfall method in Europe approved by a data protection authority, validated by academia, partners and customers. Scale never comes at privacy's expense.
Telia's partnership with Bumbee Labs is important for us to expand our business. It allows us to develop our use cases for location and movement insights to be even more granular. By combining our anonymized and aggregated mobile network data with Bumbee Labs solution of GDPR-safe Wi-Fi probe data, we ensure that the collection of data follows the strictest guidelines of GDPR compliance all the way.
Frequently asked questions
Where does cellular analytics work best?
Across large outdoor areas (city centres, districts and transport corridors) where it's impractical to cover everything with Wi-Fi or sensors, and where you want catchment and movement between areas rather than detail inside a single building.
Is mobile data used at an individual level?
No. Cellular analytics uses anonymised and aggregated network data to measure flows. It is not used to identify or track individuals.
How does it relate to Wi-Fi and sensor methods?
They're complementary by scale. Cellular gives the wide outdoor view and catchment; Wi-Fi gives whole-space behaviour indoors and semi-outdoors; sensors give exact counts at a point. A hybrid uses each where it's strongest.
What can I actually measure?
Wide-area visitor counts and flows, origin and catchment, travel patterns between areas, and peaks and trends at city scale. See the data deliverables page for the full metric set and which method delivers what.