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Ninety-nine percent of German railway passengers on ‘main routes’ can now access speeds of at least 200 Mbps
Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s state-owned railway company, have made significant improvements to mobile reception on trains in Germany over the past three years, according to a press release published by the companies last week.
Back in 2021, the two companies first began cooperating on this deal, with the goal of significantly improving mobile reception along Germany’s railway network, and specifically, to provide the entire line’s network with high-performance mobile coverage by the end 2026. The partnership aimed to tackle the challenges of providing high quality mobile connectivity under the difficult environmental conditions along the railway routes, such as within tunnels and nature reserves.
Since the collaboration started, the companies have jointly invested ‘a three-digit million amount’ to build and modernise the network’s infrastructure. This included installing over 470 new mobile towers and upgrading approximately 1,900 sites along rail routes.
A key focus was ensuring that 99% of the country’s 7,800km of main routes now offer at least 200 Mbps data speeds, with 95% sections reaching 300 Mbps or more. The companies also made progress on 13,800km of secondary routes (>2,000 passengers per day), increasing availability of 200 Mbps from 73% in 2021 to 94% in 2024.
Further improvements are being planned by 2026.
“The cooperation between Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Bahn shows that Germany is making progress in digitisation!” said Dr. Richard Lutz, CEO of Deutsche Bahn in a translated press release.
“Together we have managed to ensure that rail passengers 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,” he continued.
“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,” said Timotheus Höttges, CEO of DT.
“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 must take further steps together.”
In an additional investment, DB is spending €50 million to install over 70,000 train windows that are more easily penetrated by mobile signals. This technology uses a laser to etch a fine pattern into the ultra-thin metal layer that shields the train windows from sunlight, thereby allowing better signal penetration.
These mobile signal-permeable windows are gradually replacing the older repeater systems currently installed on the trains, which used external antennas to transmit signals inside the carriages.
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