PRESS RELEASE: CTU has measured signal on railway corridors. Coverage outside the railway coaches is improving

Prague, 20 March 2024 - At the turn of 2023 and 2024, between November and February, CTU, in cooperation with the Správa železnic, carried out a continuous measurement of the coverage of transit railway corridors and other railway lines of the TEN-T network in the Czech Republic with mobile radio communication network signals (2G, 4G, and 5G) in order to determine the current state of coverage. The report with the results can be found here (the report itself is available only in CZ).

Compared to 2021, when the last measurement was carried out, it is obvious that operators have significantly improved their signal coverage outside railway coaches (outdoor). On the contrary, there has been an apparent deterioration in the recalculation of coverage inside carriages (indoors) - but this is due to the more stringent methodology.

"I am pleased that the measurement have shown a further gradual improvement in the coverage outside railway coaches, the shift over the last period is noticeable. However, it is also a fact that the signal inside the carriages is still inadequate. That is why we have taken on the role of a subsidy call to equip railway coaches with 5G signal repeaters or permeable windows," said Marek Ebert, CTU Council Chairman.

The results are available to the public, e.g. via the VPortal, on which you can identify sections containing uncovered points. In the case of rapid alternation of these sections, the mobile phone does not have enough time to log into the network, so the subjective assessment of coverage inside the railway coaches may be lower than that determined by the measurement. Other technological means, such as repeaters or permeable windows, are necessary to improve the signal inside the railway coaches.

This measurement was implemented within the project CZ.31.1.0/0.0/0.0/22_013/0005074 THE SYSTEM FOR MEASURING QUALITY OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES from the National Recovery Plan.

Tereza Meravá
Spokesperson
Czech Telecommunication Office