PRESS RELEASE: CTU has issued a decision on the granting of subsidy for the improvement of signal in hundreds of railway coaches

Prague, 12 November 2024 - The subsidy call "Technical devices for 5G in railway coaches" to help improve the availability and quality of mobile services inside train coaches has reached its next milestone. These days, CTU is sending out Decisions on the granting of subsidy to carriers in all registered subsidy programmes. All participating carriers, i.e. České dráhy, Leo Express and RegioJet, were successful. Now, the carriers can fully start the process of installing technical devices for 5G in their railway coaches.

By 1 January 2026 at the latest, passengers on the Czech railways will be able to meet almost 670 modified coaches with more mobile services available. Specifically, there will be 176 coaches with mobile signal repeaters installed and 493 coaches in which the original windows will be replaced with modern permeable windows, or in which the existing windows will be converted to permeable ones using laser technology. The total cost of the modification of these coaches is nearly CZK 290 million excluding VAT.

"The fact that all the dominant carriers operating on the Czech railway market for long-distance passenger transport applied and subsequently succeeded is a proof that we managed to set the parameters of our call realistically and that they were acceptable to these carriers," said Marek Ebert, CTU Council Chairman.

This subsidy programme appropriately complements the obligations imposed by CTU on mobile operators in the 5G auction to improve mobile signal quality on all railway corridors, and it was also added this June during the renewal of their frequency allocations in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands.

Tereza Meravá
Spokesperson
Czech Telecommunication Office