EUROPE passengers ”. The Deutsche Bahn WiFi project ( WLAN @ DB ), which is part of the corporate “ Zukunft Bahn ” quality programme , has responded to this challenge and WiFi has meanwhile been available free of charge in the second-class coaches of ICE trains since 1 January .
“ WiFi will also be available free of charge in the second-class coaches of ICE trains ”: this was one of the promises that DB had made to its customers at the beginning of 2016 . DB kept its word and officially announced on 1 January : free WiFi was available on schedule as promised .
Our telecommunications procurement department had to tackle some major challenges related to the procurement of on-board Wi-Fi . But with a great team and excellent teamwork with our end user , DB Long Distance , the procurement process was destined for success . In summer 2016 , we completed the contract award process for on-board Wi-Fi hardware , which has meanwhile been installed . In autumn 2016 , we awarded the contracts for SIM cards and data to three providers : Telekom , Vodafone and Telefonica .
Installation of the new technology was a huge project : some 250 ICE trains had to be fitted with the new WiFi equipment within just 16 weeks . The ICEs now have state-of-the-art WiFi equipment provided by the Swedish company Icomera . It makes use of the fastest data networks
( LTE , UMTS ) of all the mobile radio networks along the railway line and can bundle the capacities of several network operators . In the past , it used only the Deutsche Telekom network . Each passenger in a second class coach now has access to a data volume of 200 MB per day , which means they can now send and receive e-mails , chat and surf the net without any problems . Passengers in first-class coaches have access to an unlimited data volume .
German Unification Traffic Project lineside signals : the latest high-tech control system
Photo credit : Deutsche Bahn AG-Pablo Castagnola
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