Import Cell Phone Records

Summary

Imports phone records from wireless network providers and associates those records with a site and sector feature classes as generated by the Import Cell Sites tool based on identifier fields.

Usage

  • Disclaimer: Output cell sectors and site points only represent phone records that linked successfully to the input cell site and sectors based on common identifier fields and not based on the actual location of the phone. Actual location of cell phones can vary depending on several factors including the variability of beamwidth extents and radial distance and the variability of cell site selection as determined by the wireless network provider (including selecting cell sites that are further away than the nearest cell site).
  • Generates a cell site and sectors feature for each record in the input phone record table. This generally means that there will be several features stacked as several calls or data events typically occur within the same site or sector.
  • Intended to be used together with the Import Cell Sites tool.
  • The following fields will be generated:

      Required:

    • Identifier fields as specified in the Cell Phone Identifier fields parameter.
    • subscriber: subscriber identifier (phone number or other identifier).
    • Optional:

    • destphone: phone number (or identifier) of the call destination.
    • starttime: start date and time of the phone record (start time of phone call or data event).
    • duration: duration of phone call in seconds.
    • endttime: end date and time of phone record (end time of phone call or data event).
    • phonex: estimated phone longitude (easting) of phone at time of record as provided by the wireless network provider.
    • phoney: estimated phone latitude (northing) of phone at time of record as provided by the wireless network provider.
  • Records without a subscriber identifier will be ignored and not imported into the output feature classes.
  • If a record start date and time field and duration field is provided, but an end date and time field is not provided, then the end date and time value will be generated automatically.
  • If a record start date and time field and record end date and time field is provided, then the duration value will be generated automatically.
  • The tool will interpret input duration strings formatted as HH:MM:SS and convert that value to total seconds. For example 01:10:05 would be converted to 4205 seconds.
  • If the Estimated Phone X and Estimated Phone Y parameters are used, an additional derived feature class will be generated showing the estimated locations of the phone as determined by the record provided by the wireless network provider.

Syntax

ImportCellPhoneRecords_crime (Input_Phone_Records_Table, Input_Cell_Site_Points, Input_Cell_Site_Sectors, Output_Phone_Record_Site_Points, Output_Phone_Record_Sectors, Cell_Sector_Identifier_Fields, Subscriber_Identifier_Field, {Additional_Cell_Sector_Identifier_Fields}, {Destination_Phone_Number_Field}, {Record_Start_Date_and_Time_Field}, {Record_Duration_Field}, {Record_End_Date_and_Time_Field}, {UTC_Option}, {Estimated_Phone_Location_X_Field}, {Estimated_Phone_Location_Y_Field}, Estimated_Phone_Location_Coordinate_System)

Parameter Explanation Data Type
Input Phone Records Table Call record or phone data event record table from wireless network provider. Column names are required to be at the top of the table in order for the tool to interpret field names correctly. Table View
Input Cell Site Points Cell site point feature class generated by the Import Cell Sites tool. Feature Layer
Input Cell Site Sectors Cell sector polygon feature class generated by the Import Cell Sites tool. Feature Layer
Output Phone Record Site Points Output phone records points feature class. One point per phone record linked to cell site points will be generated. Feature Layer
Output Phone Record Sectors Output phone records sector polygon feature class. One sector polygon per phone record linked to cell site sectors will be generated. Feature Layer
Cell Sector Identifier Fields Cell Sector Identifier Fields Value Table
Subscriber Identifier Field Field containing the phone number or other identifier of the subscriber. For standardization purposes the output destination field will remove all non-numeric characters from the input values. For example, a phone number specified as (555)555-1234 will be changed to 5555551234. This is done to make it simpler to compare phone numbers from various wireless network providers. Field
Additional Cell Sector Identifier Fields (Optional)

Field or fields that uniquely identify the cell sector or antenna of the phone record. If the phone record contains call data, this parameter is to be used to identify the cell site or sector at the end of the call.

This parameter behaves the same way as the Cell Sector Identifier Fields parameter except for the following distinctions:

    If it is determined that beginning cell sector and the ending cell sector are the same a separate feature is not created for the ending cell sector and is ignored.
    A new field called idtype will be generated containing the values "PRIMARY" or "ADDITIONAL". "PRIMARY" represents a cell phone record linked to a sector that represents the beginning of a call. "ADDITIONAL" represents a cell phone record linked to a sector that represents the end of a call only if the sector is in a different location than the primary sector.
Value Table
Destination Phone Number Field (Optional) Field containing the phone number of the destination callee. For standardization purposes the output destination field will remove all non-numeric characters from the input values. For example, a phone number specified as (555)555-1234 will be changed to 5555551234. This is done to make it simpler to compare phone numbers from various wireless network providers. Field
Record Start Date and Time Field (Optional) A date field with values representing the start date and time of the phone call or data event. Field
Record Duration Field (Optional) A text or integer field representing the duration of the record in seconds (duration of the phone call). Duration text values formatted as HH:MM:SS will be automatically converted to total seconds. Field
Record End Date and Time Field (Optional)/td> A date field with values representing the end date and time of the phone call or data event. Field
UTC Option (Optional) If option is chosen then the input record start and end date and time values will be converted from UTC timezone to the timezone of the local computer clock. Boolean
Estimated Phone Location X Field (Optional) Field representing the longitude (easting) of the estimated phone location as provided by the wireless network provider. If populated, then this information will be used to create and additional feature class output showing the estimated phone locations as provided by the wireless network provider. Field
Estimated Phone Location Y Field (Optional) Field representing the latitude (northing) of the estimated phone location as provided by the wireless network provider. If populated, then this information will be used to create and additional feature class output showing the estimated phone locations as provided by the wireless network provider. Field
Estimated Phone Location Coordinate System (Optional) The coordinate system of the estimated phone x (longitude) and y (latitude) coordinate pairs. Coordinate System

Licensing information

  • ArcGIS Desktop Basic: Yes
  • ArcGIS Desktop Standard: Yes
  • ArcGIS Desktop Advanced: Yes
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