Mobile network coverage of the railway corridors

In cooperation with state organisation Správa železnic, CTU carried out measurements of the coverage of transit railway corridors with mobile radiocommunication networks (2G, 4G and 5G) in 2025, including verification of coverage inside tunnels.

The special railway coach went through all the corridors in both directions and the measurement was performed on a per-second basis. Thus, CTU obtained the data with a density of every 25 meters. The data shows that there are also sections containing uncovered spots. If there are multiple spots in a row, users may perceive the entire area as uncovered because the mobile phone does not have enough time to log into the network. Thus, the subjective assessment of coverage may be lower than the coverage determined by the measurement.

The results of measurement of mobile operators´ signal coverage of transit railway corridors within the Czech Republic 

The results of measurement of mobile operators' signal coverage of tunnels in transit railway corridors

The purpose of the measurements was to determine the current state of coverage of transit railway corridors and to inspect whether the development criteria set out in the frequency auctions were met. Taking into account the objective facts allowed by the auction conditions (e.g. achieving coverage only under the assumption of disproportionately high investment costs), the measurement showed that the operators' commitments have been met.

For the purpose of presenting and visualising the results, the measured values were processed in an application which is publicly available on: https://vportal.ctu.gov.cz/en.

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. The subsidy call "Technical devices for 5G in railway coaches" will help to solve the signal issues inside the coaches and improve the availability and quality of mobile services inside the coaches.