South Africa’s trains will soon operate with an improved railway communication system as Passenger Railway Agency of South Africa (PRASA) concluded a deal that will see the installation of one of Africa’s first digital railway communications networks.
Chinese electronics manufacturer Huawei and PRASA concluded the deal for the first rail operational Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway (GSM-R) network.
“Technology is heavily embedded in our business and this partnership has been instrumental in enabling PRASA to achieve its railway operation improvement objectives in order to ensure that we deliver dignified rail services to all our people”, Piet Sebola, PRASA executive director said.
Marketing Director of the transport sector for Huawei Enterprise Business Group, Norman Frisch explained that PRASA is now in a position to operate and maintain its GSM-R network which operates in the GSM-R frequency band assigned to the company. “By making use of the GSM-R network, dispatchers can reach train drivers at a push of a button,” Frisch further said, explaining that Push To Talk (PTT) enabling drivers to communicate seamlessly if a problem occurs.
Huawei’s rail solutions cover 100 000km of railway lines around the world. It also serves over 50 urban rail lines and more than 60 partners in the railway industry.
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