Telephoning, surfing or even working is not always possible on a trip. The network often falls away – Deutsche Bahn and Vodafone now want to change that.
(Photo: imago images/Cavan Images)
Berlin In the future, rail travelers in Germany will be able to use a stable mobile phone connection more and more frequently. Deutsche Bahn and Vodafone have agreed to jointly close the remaining gaps in the Vodafone mobile network on the rail routes throughout Germany. Last summer, Deutsche Bahn had already concluded a similar agreement on network expansion with Deutsche Telekom. The third provider, Telefónica (O2), is still being negotiated.
The expansion plan presented in Berlin on Friday envisages that Vodafone will provide the 7,800 kilometers of main traffic routes with bandwidths of 225 megabits per second in the 4G network (LTE) by mid-2025. The ICE and IC trains run here.
The Düsseldorf provider also wants to activate its “5G+” network along these routes, which does not require LTE technology (“5G stand alone”). “5G+” offers particularly short data runtimes. Vodafone promises a seamless 4G network with bandwidths of at least 125 megabits per second by summer 2025 on a further 13,800 kilometers of routes with a higher volume of passengers.
>>>Read here: Deutsche Bahn promises broadband like at home – and converts the trains for it
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Hannes Ametsreiter, the head of Vodafone Germany, said nine out of ten rail passengers used mobile internet or made calls on their smartphones. “And they are still annoyed far too often about annoying dead spots.” Together with Deutsche Bahn, Vodafone is now finally able to remedy the situation.
Deutsche Telekom had already announced in June that it would have a complete supply of mobile communications on the rails by 2026. On the main routes, on which all ICE and the most important IC trains operate, the Magenta Group will offer a data rate of at least 200 megabits per second until the end of 2024. By the end of 2025, a data rate of at least 200 megabits per second should also be available on routes with a large number of passengers, on which more than 2,000 passengers travel each day. All other routes are to be supplied with a data rate of at least 100 megabits per second by the end of 2026.
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