The Ministry of Transport renews its confidence in Nommon and Orange Spain to analyse mobility in Spain using big data
The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has once again awarded the joint venture formed by Orange Spain and Nommon the continuity of the “Big Data Mobility Study”, a project that since 2017 has analysed population movements using anonymised mobile phone data and published its results open-access for any public administration, business or researcher to use.
Almost a decade of renewed confidence
The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has resolved to award once again to the joint venture formed by Orange Spain and Nommon Solutions and Technologies the delivery of the Study of nationwide passenger mobility applying big data technology, continuing a collaboration that dates back to 2017. The new contract ensures that Spain will continue to possess one of the most advanced mobility knowledge infrastructures in Europe, with the daily publication of indicators starting in October 2026.
A pioneering project that replaced traditional surveys
In 2017, the then Ministry of Public Works awarded the Study of Interprovincial Passenger Mobility applying Big Data Technology to the joint venture formed by Nommon and Orange Spain for the first time, a project that at the time was one of the most significant in this field globally. Its objective was to replace traditional long-distance mobility surveys — the so-called Movilia surveys, the last edition of which dated from 2007 — with origin-destination matrices calculated from the analysis of anonymised mobile data, distinguishing the mode of transport used (road, rail, air, or maritime). The results, published in 2018, demonstrated that this technology allows higher quality information to be obtained at a lower cost and within significantly shorter timeframes than traditional methods.
The acid test: the COVID-19 pandemic
The model’s utility was tested on a large scale with the arrival of the pandemic. Following the declaration of the state of emergency on 14 March 2020, the Government commissioned Nommon to conduct a new daily mobility study to track population movements across the entire national territory with a lag of just three days. The data, published open-access, supported decision-making on mobility restrictions and the adaptation of transport services, while also feeding epidemiological models at institutions such as the Carlos III Health Institute and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
From emergency to permanent service (2022-2026)
Once the most acute phase of the pandemic was over, the Ministry decided that continuous mobility monitoring using big data was here to stay. From May 2022 to April 2025, the Nommon-Orange joint venture carried out the previous Study of nationwide passenger mobility applying big data technology, which significantly expanded the scope and precision of previous studies. The project worked with a sample of over 13 million mobile connections, combining active events (calls, text messages, data sessions) and passive network probe events. This multiplied the volume of records analysed — up to 6 billion daily — and substantially improved information accuracy compared to the earlier project. This data generates matrices of trips, stages, overnight stays, cross-border mobility, and road routes, all freely available on the Ministry’s Open Data Mobility portal.
A value beyond technology: public policy and open data
Beyond its technical complexity, the project has established itself as a benchmark data infrastructure for designing sustainable mobility policies. Its findings feed into the National Transport Model, support the planning of infrastructure and services, help identify needs, prioritise investments, and evaluate policy impacts. Furthermore, thanks to its publication as open data, dozens of public bodies, universities, research centres, and media outlets have used this information for their own analyses on phenomena as diverse as depopulation, internal migration patterns, holiday travel during Easter or summer, and the impact of potential short-haul flight restrictions. Ultimately, it serves as an exemplar of how reusing private data — always anonymised and aggregated in full compliance with European and national data protection regulations — can deliver public benefit by informing evidence-based public policy decisions.
What comes next: continuity of service from september 2026
The new contract, recently awarded by the Ministry to the Orange Spain–Nommon joint venture, continues the mobility insights work using big data technology developed since 2022, while significantly extending the scope and level of detail of the previous project. The new service will provide data with greater spatial, temporal, and socio-demographic granularity and will incorporate new indicators, including those regarding population presence and spatial distribution. Furthermore, the scope of comprehensive mobility studies, including travel mode segmentation, as well as specific road route studies, will be expanded substantially. Implementation of the new service commenced on 1 September 2026, ensuring no disruption to the historical mobility data series published by the Ministry since 2022 and reinforcing its role as a key benchmark tool for infrastructure and transport service planning in Spain.