Robi to use crowdsourced data for helping govt tackle coronavirus

Robi, the second largest mobile network operator of Bangladesh, has come up with an initiative to use data analytics for supporting the government combat the coronavirus outbreak.

In partnership with Access to Information (a2i), the Cabinet Division and the health directorate, Robi has put in place an analytics system that extracts data from decentralised crowdsources, the telecom operator said at a digital press conference on Thursday.

Robi Managing Director and CEO Mahtab Uddin Ahmed said, "We are extremely proud to be able to join hands with the government in combatting the coronavirus pandemic.

"As part of our drive towards digitalisation, Robi has accumulated significant amount of expertise in providing data analytics solutions."

Crowdsourcing is a sourcing model in which individuals or organisations obtain goods and services – including ideas and finances – from a large, relatively open and often rapidly-evolving group of internet users.

According to a presentation by Robi, crowdsourcing via mobile phones shall allow high value data acquisition.

By applying data science to the crowdsourced data, the analytics model can perform validation checks on the gathered data to ensure its quality.

By gathering data from Interactive Voice Response, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, and the My Robi and My Airtel apps, Robi analysts can create various graphical representations of the information to generate insights that the government can readily work on.

The government can use the data to assess the probability of coronavirus exposure in a given area and can determine the next course of action.