Comparing Rural and Urban Social and Economic Behavior in Uganda: Insights from Mobile Voice Service Usage

Han Wang and Liam Kilmartin

Journal of Urban Technology, 2014, vol. 21, issue 2, 61-89

Abstract: The analysis of Call Detail Record (CDR) data sets generated by mobile telephony networks has generated much interest in recent years, particularly as an easily accessed source of large volumes of data capable of reflecting the dynamic behavior of humans across a range of temporal and spatial scales. This paper presents a study focused on examining human social and economic behavioral patterns in Uganda through the analysis of a CDR data set generated in a Ugandan mobile telephone network in 2010. By examining the response of subscribers to a service incentivizing higher mobile phone call rates through the offering of discounts, economically motivated differences in subscriber behavior in poorer versus wealthier regions of the country are identified. The paper also presents an analysis which suggests a high degree of social insularity within the regions of Uganda which is most likely related to regionally economic development levels in addition to the high levels of ethnic homogeneity within those regions. A methodology for identifying centers of economic activity using the data set alone is also presented and the accuracy and implications of the resultant regional patterns are discussed. Finally, measures of human mobility, and its relationship with economic and social regional characteristics, are examined through the use of graph theoretic based analysis techniques.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1080/10630732.2014.888296

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