GERMANY: The GINT XT programme has been launched to develop a high-connectivity corridor using 5G telecoms along a 12 km section of regional railway in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
GINT XT brings together Deutsche Bahn and all four national mobile telecoms operators: 1&1, Deutsche Telekom, O2 Telefónica and Vodafone. Other partners include Vantage Towers as the radio mast operator, Ericsson as the 5G network technology provider, German aerospace and transport research body DLR and local railway company Regio Infra Nord-Ost, which will provide a section of its 375 km network to create what the partners are calling a ‘gigabit test track’.
The project builds on the initial GINT initiative which was aimed at making uninterrupted gigabit-capable connectivity a reality for rail passengers. The joint research and development project funded by the Federal Ministry for Digitalisation & Government Modernisation is testing different options for shared mobile infrastructure such as antennas, software and base stations, supporting gigabit-speed data delivery using 5G technologies.
The project will also assess how this shared infrastructure can integrate with the Future Railway Mobile Communication System standards now being finalised by the International Union of Railways. FRMCS is intended to support a raft of digital telecoms tools that together will replace the GSM-R mobile telecoms networks widely used by railways across Europe and globally.
Under GINT XT, compact modular masts installed along the tracks are designed for dual use. This means the infrastructure can support both rail operations and public mobile coverage with a design that reduces construction time and enables faster deployment.
Results from the GINT XT test track will help to determine how FRMCS infrastructure for mobile communication services can be deployed along the Hamburg – Berlin rail corridor. A declaration of intent signed in October 2024 between DB, the mobile providers and the federal government set the path for a scalable and tech-neutral approach to deliver ‘5G on the track’.
‘High speed internet on trains must not remain a dream of the future’, said Federal Minister for Digital Affairs Dr Karsten Wildberger when the GINT XT initiative was launched in June. ‘For a modern country, it must be a matter of course that people can also use the internet on trains to work, stream and make phone calls without any limitations. For this to succeed, complex technical challenges must be overcome. With the Gigabit Innovation Track XT project, the Ministry of Transport and the companies involved are doing real pioneering work and showing what can be achieved when joining forces. This is also the most important signal for our mission. If everyone pulls together, we can move from planning to implementation.’
‘Last year, the GINT partners set up a test track with mobile phone masts close to the rails in record time’, added Dr Daniela Gerd tom Markotten, Board Member for Digitalisation & Technology at Deutsche Bahn. ‘Now, for the first time, all German public mobile communications companies are investigating how gigabit coverage can be achieved along this test track. Because that’s what people want: working, participating in video conferences or making phone calls while travelling by train. We will work together to fulfil this demand.’
‘For the first time, the GINT XT project enables the active sharing of radio network resources between all four mobile network operators in Germany’, explained Daniel Leimbach, Managing Director of Ericsson GmbH. ‘Ericsson is providing the technology foundation for this, including a preconfigured 5G core network infrastructure from our Ericsson R&D Center Eurolab in Aachen.’
