Mobile network coverage of the railway corridors

CTU publishes results of the measurement of transit railway corridors and other railway lines of the TEN-T network with the signal of all mobile networks.

The measurements were carried out in order to determine the current state of coverage of railway corridors and lines of the TEN-T network and also to verify the ongoing fulfilment of the conditions of the tender for granting of rights to use radio frequencies for electronic communications networks in the 700 MHz and 3400-3600 MHz bands. The coverage situation on the railway corridors is very good and there has been a significant improvement in the coverage situation of all three Czech mobile operators compared to the last measurement in 2021.

At some places on the railway lines, covered and uncovered sections alternate very quickly. In the case of rapid alternation of these sections, the mobile phone does not have enough time to log on to the network, so that the subjective assessment of coverage is lower than that determined by the measurement.

To present and visualize the results, the measured values were processed in an application that is public and available on the website: vportal.ctu.cz.

Effect of the construction of railway wagons

As earlier pointed out by CTU in the previous press release, there is a significant impact of the railway coaches construction and its permeability of electromagnetic waves on the quality of connection. Among the railway coaches operated on the Czech railways there are even ten-thousandfold differences. Although the network coverage is almost 100%, access to mobile network services for passengers will be limited without further technical measures.