pilot project started
Bahn is trying to improve the network in trains
06/13/2023 1:07 p.m
The need for data in the Internet age is constantly increasing: streaming and video conferences also require larger amounts of data on the go. The railway wants to guarantee a fast transmission. The company wants to have clarity by the end of 2024.
Deutsche Bahn and several telecommunications companies have started a 5G project to ensure that the mobile phone network on train tracks is stable and transmits at gigabit speed despite the massive increase in data requirements. The Federal Ministry of Transport, the railways, the network operator Telefónica (O2) and other companies in Berlin announced that a funding decision worth 6.4 million euros had been handed over.
The approximately ten-kilometer-long train route to which the project relates is located in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Ten new masts are to be erected there, and the project will run until the end of 2024. A frequency band is used that transmits a particularly large amount of data at breakneck speed.
The background to the project is the rapidly increasing demand for data in the Internet age: video conferences, downloading large files and streaming films or music are becoming more and more a matter of course – not only at home, but also on the go.
The feasibility study is supported by the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport. “Our aim is for the train to be a rolling office or living room, in which mobile work, video streaming and phone calls are technically possible with a cell phone,” said Transport and Digital Minister Volker Wissing, according to the announcement. “This high quality can only be achieved with gigabit coverage.”
So far, however, so-called area frequencies have been used along the rails, which have a large range but low throughput: Ultimately, these area frequencies will not be sufficient in future to cover the immense data requirements on the train. With the higher frequency band used in the project, the data throughput is higher, but the range is lower – accordingly, many more masts are required than have been installed along the railway lines up to now.