Rail travelers benefit from significantly better cell phone reception when they make calls or surf the internet using Telekom’s mobile network: calls and online connections are now possible on many routes with almost no interruption. Deutsche Bahn and Telekom have invested a three-digit million amount in this over the past three years. In 2021, the two companies set ambitious goals for the expansion of mobile communications along the tracks. They achieved the goals two years faster than agreed: Telekom customers benefit from significantly greater network coverage and noticeably increased bandwidths.
Farbenfroh zeigt sich der Landkreis Schaumburg in Niedersachsen, als der ICE 4 “Fan-Hauptstadt Hamburg” (Baureihe 412 / siebenteilig) des DB Fernverkehr auf der Relation Hauptstadt – Ruhrgebiet bei Haste durchrauscht. (UEFA EURO 2024™)
Telekom provides rail passengers with at least 200 Mbit/s bandwidth on 99 percent of the 7,800-kilometer main routes, which is twelve percentage points more than at the start of the cooperation. On 95 percent of the main routes, 300 Mbit/s and more are available. There was also an enormous increase in the 200 Mbit/s supply on so-called high-passenger routes (13,800 kilometers). More than 2,000 passengers travel there every day. The supply increased by over 20 percentage points from 73 to 94 percent today.
Mobile phone coverage has also been significantly expanded on secondary routes (12,000 kilometers). Today, 96 percent of them are supplied with 100 Mbit/s. Three years ago, this figure was just under 83 percent.
The cooperation between Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Bahn shows that Germany is making progress in digitization! Together we have managed to ensure that rail travelers can surf and make calls almost anywhere without interruption in the Telekom network. Telekom has strengthened its network for this purpose, and we at DB have equipped our vehicles. Now more and more trains are being added to our fleet with mobile phone-transparent windows. Uninterrupted mobile phone reception is a basic need for our customers. If we get better at this, we will make rail travel much more attractive. This jointly achieved digitization goal is therefore also a step forward in our overall “S3″ restructuring program, with which we are getting back on the growth path of our Strong Rail strategy,” said Dr. Richard Lutz, CEO of Deutsche Bahn.
“We built a new mast every two and a half days. We significantly increased data rates. And we saw that network expansion only works when we work together. We need usable space for our locations and faster approval processes. Providing coverage on challenging routes through national parks, mountains, wooded valleys or tunnels requires a lot of patience. We will not let up here either. We have achieved a lot and people are noticing that. But we have not yet reached our goal and we need to take further steps together,” added Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom.
The cooperation between DB and Telekom continues
As part of the cooperation between DB and Deutsche Telekom, around 5,500 kilometers of track have been newly supplied with broadband since summer 2021. A total of 470 new cell phone masts have been built and around 1,900 existing locations have been technically expanded and modernized. A number of routes are now so well lit that the mobile phone network along the rails no longer has any dead spots. These include Frankfurt–Nuremberg–Munich, Karlsruhe–Basel, Frankfurt–Cologne (left bank of the Rhine), Cologne–Düsseldorf–Dortmund, Frankfurt–Kassel–Hanover, Berlin–Leipzig–Erfurt–Nuremberg-Munich, Hamburg–Bremen, Saarbrücken–Mannheim and Dresden–Leipzig.
Even though the expansion targets agreed in 2021 were achieved earlier than planned, both companies want to continue their cooperation and, in particular, further improve mobile phone coverage in tunnels. For safety reasons, mobile phone technology can only be installed there if the tunnels are completely closed to train traffic. Of the 400 tunnels already expanded, Telekom has improved the lighting in more than 100 tunnels on ICE routes, and more are to follow.
Routes that run through nature reserves are also challenging. This includes the Berlin-Rostock route through the Müritz National Park. After years of negotiations, an agreement was finally reached with the nature conservation authorities. Telekom plans to have full coverage of this route by 2026.
Investments for good mobile reception
To improve mobile phone reception on board its trains, DB is investing in windows that allow the mobile phone signal to penetrate the interior of the carriages more easily. With these so-called mobile phone-permeable windows, a fine pattern is lasered into the wafer-thin metal layer that protects the carriages from sunlight. The mobile phone-permeable windows are gradually replacing the previous repeaters, which receive signals via antennas on the carriages and transmit them into the interior.
New trains such as the ICE 3neo are fitted with windows that allow mobile phone reception instead of complex repeaters. For trains that have been running reliably for many years, DB uses an innovative laser process to subsequently make the windows mobile phone-permeable by adding a fine pattern to the metal layer. The technology has recently become available to the rail sector. This enables mobile phone reception on board to be sustainably improved. DB is investing around EUR 50 million in processing more than 70,000 windows on its long-distance trains.
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