SK Telecom Presents Case Studies on Big Data Analytics Use in Korea’s Fight against COVID-19

SK Telecom announced on Aug. 31 that it will participate in the 6th International Conference on Big Data for Official Statistics to share how its big data analytics service Geovision is helping Korea fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Organized by Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) and the United Nations Global Working Group (GWG) on Big Data for Official Statistics, the conference will be held virtually in Seoul, Korea from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2. The conference, to be held under the main theme of “How can Big Data help in the COVID-19 response,” will provide a venue for experts from across the world to discuss and give examples of work related to COVID-19 response.

*Created in 2014, the UN GWG on Big Data for Official Statistics provides strategic vision, direction and coordination of a global program on big data for official statistics, including for indicators of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. It also promotes practical use of big data sources, while promoting capability building, training and sharing of experiences. The GWG consists of 28 member countries and 16 international organizations.

At the conference, SK Telecom will introduce its big data-based real-time floating population analytics service Geovision and explain how it is helping public agencies fight against COVID-19. The public agencies are actively utilizing Geovision to strengthen preventive measures against COVID-19 in selected areas and conduct patrol operations more efficiently.

Geovision is the largest big data and spatial data analytics service in Korea that uses communication data between mobile phones and base stations to offer analytical insights in diverse areas including trade area analysis and demographic statistics.

It is capable of analyzing real-time floating population of any area across the country every five minutes. It is applied with the company’s self-developed big data analytics platform named GIRAF (Geo Intelligence Rapid Analytics _framework), which can analyze up to 60 terabytes of data every five minutes and deliver visualized data results.

Moreover, the company will present a joint case study with Statistics Korea on the movement of population related to COVID-19. The company has been contributing to the nation’s response against the COVID-19 pandemic by analyzing people’s movement based on mobile big data following the outbreak of cluster infections.

SK Telecom will also present a case where it worked with Busan Metropolitan City to produce national statistics based on communication data for the first time in the world in 2016, along with other big data analytics use cases such as trade area analysis for small businesses and transport big data analysis for the creation of a national transport database.

“We are pleased to participate in this meaningful event and show how big data can be used for social good in times of crisis,” said Chang Hong-sung, vice president and head of Ad/Data Business Division of SK Telecom. “We will continue to make full use of our advanced ICT including 5G and AI to help create a better and safer society.”