📋 Tender Overview
The Railway Administration is looking for a designer and contractor to improve the 5G network on the busiest corridor section between Prague and Ceska Trebova. New transmitters will be built in five locations and mobile operators will take care of the signal propagation itself. The highest permissible bid price is 168.7 million crowns. It should be completed in early 2028.
The winner of the tender will first create the project then carry out the construction work itself. Their completion will bring better coverage of the main corridor with a 5G signal and as a result a higher quality of voice and data services for passengers.
The governments program statement envisages that we will gradually cover all main railway corridors with a high-quality 5G signal. If we want the railway to be a real alternative to traveling by car it must also offer services that todays passengers take for granted. These include a stable and fast data connection whether people on the train work make calls or use other services on board the train. However high-quality data coverage is also important for the further digitization of the railway and safe operation including the development of systems related to ETCS says Transport Minister Ivan Bednarik.
Our goal is for passengers to be able to be online for the entire duration of the journey. Improving the signal on trains will bring uninterrupted calls higher quality data connections and overall higher travel comfort. Cooperation with mobile operators with whom we are cooperating on this project is key adds Tomas Toth CEO of the Railway Administration.
All new masts will be able to be used for the propagation of the current GSM-R radio signal which is used for communication between the track and on-board parts of the ETCS train security system. It will also serve the FRMCS system which GSM-R will replace in the future.
In June the Railway Administration and operators completed mobile network coverage in two rail tunnels on the corridor. Passengers will now be able to call and use mobile data in the Vitkov tunnels in Prague and in the Krasik tunnel between Ceska Trebova and Olomouc.
