Temporal Self-Organizing Maps for Telecommunications Market Segmentation

A method for clustering time-varying data by using neural networks, i.e. Kohonen self-organizing maps (SOMs), is suggested. Some dissimilarity measures for capturing the temporal structure of the data are introduced and used in Kohonen SOMs allowing clustering of temporal data. Another method for clustering time-varying data, called dynamic tandem analysis (DTA), based on the sequential utilization of dynamic factor analysis and cluster analysis, is also considered. The methods are applied to telecommunications market segmentation on real data. The obtained results are compared and discussed. Keywords. Multivariate time sequences; K-means clustering; Kohonen SOM networks; Dynamic tandem analysis; Telecommunications operators