Skip to main content

Deutsche Bahn to get Seamless Mobile Network Along all Tracks

Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Telekom are radically improving mobile reception on trains: in future, passengers using the Deutsche Telekom (DT) mobile communications network are to be able to make calls and surf the internet on all routes without interruption – in much better quality than currently available. A press release from DT said:

By 2026 at the latest, coverage gaps along all railway lines in long-distance and regional services are to be eliminated.

Both companies have agreed that Deutsche Telekom is to build out its mobile communications network along Deutsche Bahn’s railway lines, close any gaps, and significantly increase its network’s performance. Together, the two companies are investing a sum in the hundreds of millions in order to achieve this goal. 

Deutsche Telekom will specifically provide Deutsche Bahn’s entire rail network with gap-free coverage in its mobile communications network by the end of 2026. The planned investments will be made to build out many routes by 2024 and will be finished on all routes by the end of 2026. Passengers on a number of regional routes will then have reception for the very first time.

Deutsche Bahn’s rail network covers a total of 33,400 kilometers, 7,800 kilometers of which are major routes which are used by all ICE trains as well as main IC trains. Deutsche Telekom wants to supply these routes with data rates of more than 200 Mbit/s by the end of 2024. Deutsche Telekom also aims to supply a data rate of more than 200 Mbit/s by the end of 2025 on another 13,800 kilometers of heavily-traveled routes, which are used by more than 2,000 passengers each day. In both cases this is significantly more than is currently available. 

On all other routes, Deutsche Telekom aims to provide a data rate of more than 100 Mbit/s by the end of 2026. In the coming years, the coverage should then be continually updated to match the latest technical standards.

Deutsche Telekom will put around 800 new cell sites into operation in the coming years and expand its capacity at hundreds of sites in order to improve the mobile communications network all along the railway lines. 

Deutsche Bahn wants to make spaces and fiber-optic infrastructure available to an even greater extent all along its tracks and provide services relating to planning, permission, and construction processes. Deutsche Bahn is also working on making it easier for mobile communications signals to enter its train interiors.

Here is a video that we recently made on Connecting Underground Railway Network.

Related Posts: 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Laser Inter-Satellite Links (LISLs) in a Starlink Constellation

When we first talked about Starlink back in 2019 , we saw in the video that the concept involved laser communication to communicate between the satellites. While the initially launched satellites did not have the laser communication mechanism built in, it looks like they are being added to the newer ones.  A report from Fast Company in late 2021 said: One of the next big upgrades in telecom will involve satellites firing lasers at each other—to beam data, not blow stuff up. The upside of replacing traditional radio-frequency communication with lasers, that encode data as pulses of light, can be much like that of deploying fiber-optic cable for terrestrial broadband: much faster speeds and much lower latency. “Laser links in orbit can reduce long-distance latency by as much as 50%, due to higher speed of light in vacuum & shorter path than undersea fiber,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted in July about the upgrade now beginning for that firm’s Starlink satellite constellation. ...
1 comment
Read more

IEEE 802.11bn Ultra High Reliability (UHR), a.k.a. Wi-Fi 8

Back in 2020 we looked at the introductory post of Wi-Fi 7 which was followed up by a more detailed post in Feb 2022. We are now following on with an introductory post on the next generation Wi-Fi.  A new paper on arXiv explores the journey towards IEEE 802.11bn Ultra High Reliability (UHR), the amendment that will form the basis of Wi-Fi 8. Quoting selected items from the paper  below: After providing an overview of the nearly completed Wi-Fi 7 standard, we present new use cases calling for further Wi-Fi evolution. We also outline current standardization, certification, and spectrum allocation activities, sharing updates from the newly formed UHR Study Group. We then introduce the disruptive new features envisioned for Wi-Fi 8 and discuss the associated research challenges. Among those, we focus on access point coordination and demonstrate that it could build upon 802.11be multi-link operation to make Ultra High Reliability a reality in Wi-Fi 8. The IEEE 802.11bn UHR: Whose ...
Post a Comment
Read more

NTT Docomo's Disaster Countermeasures to Keep People Connected

Recently I blogged about Disaster Roaming in 3GPP Release-17. While this will take time to be implemented worldwide, it is already available in Japan, maybe not in the 3GPP standardised way. Similarly, back in 2011, I blogged about Earthquake and Tsunami Warning service (ETWS) from NTT Docomo's Journal, it was two days before the  2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit. Japan is no stranger to earthquakes, typhoons, and other natural disasters, which can have a devastating effect on infrastructure. To ensure that the mobile networks keep functioning, operators work extremely hard to ensure people remain connected one way or another. NTT Docomo has released a video detailing the countermeasures to keep everyone connected in case of emergencies. The following detail is provided with the video: DOCOMO's network is no exception, and our services could get cut off by a base station power outage, disconnected fiber-optic cable, or other malfunctions. DOCOMO established the three p...
Post a Comment
Read more