Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Telekom want to seamlessly supply the entire route network with mobile communications by the end of 2026. Coverage is to increase gradually, starting with 7,800 kilometers of the main traffic routes on which all ICE and the most important IC trains run. Data rates of more than 200 Mbit/s are the goal.
The agreement announced today provides for new investments in the hundreds of millions. Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG, mentioned an investment of around one billion euros, including previous projects for better mobile radio reception along the railway lines. Richard Lutz, CEO of Deutsche Bahn AG, wants to invest a three-digit million amount in new cellular repeaters and new windows for trains. Express trains have the problem that they act like Faraday cages and block most of the cellphone signals and therefore need repeaters and special windows IC by the end of 2024
The cooperation envisages that by the end of 2026 the entire route network in Germany with a total length of 33,400 kilometers will be supplied with mobile communications for voice and data. By the end of 2024, 7,800 kilometers on the main routes, on which all ICE and the most important IC trains run, are to be supplied with a data rate of more than 200 Mbit/s. When asked, Höttges stated that this 200 Mbit/s does not have to be shared by the entire train, but that individual users should receive this data rate. In the “jam-packed train” probably not everyone can watch films and series in 4K, but the goal is the stated speed for everyone.
100 Mbit/s should be the minimum
In a second step, by the end of 2025, data rates of more than 200 Mbit/s are also to be achieved on a further 13,800 kilometers of high-passenger routes, on which more than 2,000 passengers are en route. Deutsche Telekom plans to supply all other routes with a data rate of more than 100 Mbit/s by the end of 2026. In the coming years, the supply is to be continuously adapted to the current state of the art. Deutsche Bahn has published a graphic that shows on which routes over 200 Mbit/s can be expected by the end of 2025 and on which remaining routes over 100 Mbit/s can be expected by the end of 2026.
Supply with 2G, LTE and 5G
Höttges explained that the frequencies at 800, 900, 1,800 and in the future also 700 MHz should be used along the railway lines. In the 5G area, coverage is planned at 2,100 MHz (DSS together with LTE), and in the city center also at 3.5 GHz in the newly auctioned spectrum. 5G at 3.5 GHz is unrealistic along the railway lines outside the cities, because this would require masts every 500 m. In the coming years, Deutsche Telekom plans to put around 800 new cell phone sites into operation and expand capacity at several hundred locations in order to improve the cell phone network along the railway lines. 3G/UMTS no longer plays a role, as the nationwide shutdown will take place on June 30th this year.
GSM-R must be modernized
In order to avoid interference, the expansion of mobile radio along the railway lines also includes the modernization of around 6000 mobile radio cells for GSM-R, also known as digital train radio. In Germany, the Federal Network Agency reserves the 4 MHz wide UIC frequency band for GSM-R, once in the downlink at 921–925MHz and in the uplink at 876–880MHz. In addition, a 3 MHz wide frequency band may be used for extended GSM-R (E-GSM-R) at 918–921MHz (downlink) and 873–876MHz (uplink). This can lead to interference from neighboring UMTS/LTE mobile radio signals at 900 MHz. LTE-R is planned as a trouble-free successor.
According to Richard Lutz, GSM-R is still an issue, especially in freight traffic, in which Deutsche Bahn currently has a market share of around 50 Hold percent. The competition showed a “limited willingness” to modernize because the companies in question have nothing to do with passenger transport and therefore see no reason for upgrading. Here, however, efforts by Andreas Scheuer (CSU), Federal Minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure, would have helped “to clear chunks out of the way”. Together with subsidies from the TKG amendment, 150 to 200 million euros are to flow into the modernization of GSM-R.