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Mobile phone network on rails: 5G project tests better radio
A transmission mast that has already been erected on a disused railway line. photo
© Jens Büttner/dpa
Train travelers like to use their smartphone, laptop or tablet. Couldn’t the cell phone network on the tracks be fundamentally improved?
For an ambitious railway project to test a Construction work has begun on a gigabit-speed mobile phone network along the tracks. Deutsche Bahn and Telefónica (O2) announced that the first masts have been anchored in the ground on the less traveled, approximately ten kilometer long route between Karow and Malchow in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The infrastructure company Vantage Towers and the network supplier Ericsson are also taking part in the project, which costs around 12.7 million euros, in which half of the costs are covered by funding from the Federal Ministry of Transport.
The project is still at an early stage. 13 antenna locations should be ready by the end of the year. Measurements are then planned to configure the system. The ICE test drives are scheduled to start in spring 2024. It is still completely unclear whether such a gigabit network will ever be built on a large scale on Germany’s railway tracks, especially since it would be an expensive thing and would require many more mobile phone masts along the railway lines than there are today.
Concrete foundations are no longer necessary
On the one hand, the project is about making construction as uncomplicated as possible, in which conventional concrete foundations are no longer necessary. In addition, a high frequency band is used. This is new for railway lines: The 3.6 gigahertz band enables enormous data throughput and very low latency, i.e. response time.
However, the antenna range is short in this frequency band; according to the information, it is only 500 to 1000 meters. Therefore, many more masts are required than on railway lines, where transmission is carried out in low frequency bands with a significantly greater range. However, the low bands in question – around 0.7 gigahertz – have the disadvantage that their bandwidth is lower and the latency is worse than in the high bands.
According to a government regulation, the transmission speed on the ICE routes is at least 100 megabits per second. The new project in 3.6 gigahertz is aiming for 1000 megabits (1 gigabit) per second – that would be a whole new level in terms of internet while traveling by train.
“If we want to get people excited about climate-friendly rail, we have to offer them an excellent telephone and surfing experience,” says rail technology manager Daniela Gerd tom Markotten. With a view to people who want to work mobile in the digital age, stream films on the go or use digital study content, she says the aim is to turn the train into “a rolling office, cinema or lecture hall”. “With increasing data volumes, this only works via 5G with gigabit data rates.”
O2 board member Valentina Daiber says that the technological possibilities for high-performance gigabit supply are present. “Now we will test together how we can roll it out along the rail network in the best possible way for our customers.” Ultimately, it is also about a better understanding of economic efficiency and financing.