Some papers were recently published demonstrating that the spatial distribution of mobile communications reflects the administrative borders (in Great Britain, for land lines, in Belgium, and in France). The research papers were based on the processing of millions of mobile communications using the zip code of the subscription bill or the most frequent local antenna used during the night. People seem to be amazed by the results and the prevalence of traditional spatial distribution, which means that they thought mobile phones were addressing an issue of mobility: we challenged that from the very beginning in the habitele project and these results confirm our choices. Mobile phones are more personal and portable than mobile. The mobility that is provided as a new paradigm is a social one by switching between social worlds we belong to.
The belgian study
http://www.briobrussel.be/assets/andere%20publicaties/en_129_brus42en.pdf
The french study
http://www.paristechreview.com/2011/11/15/telephone-portable-cartes/
The british study (from MIT Carlo Ratti's team, based on land lines)
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0014248
