PRESS RELEASE: Operators meet their transport network coverage obligations. Repeaters and permeable windows will help further improve

Prague, 19 May 2025 - At the beginning of 2025, CTU carried out measurements of the coverage of motorways and transit railway corridors with mobile radiocommunication network signals (2G, 4G and 5G) in order to determine the current state of coverage and to inspect whether the development criteria set out in the frequency auctions have been met. CTU concluded that the development criteria have been met. On the railway corridors, technical modifications from the subsidy announced by CTU will also help the signal quality inside the coaches.

MOTORWAYS:

The results of the motorway measurements showed 100% coverage of the measured sections of the motorway network with GSM and LTE technology for all mobile operators. In the case of the 5G network, 100% coverage is achieved by the mobile operator O2 Czech Republic a.s., while other operators achieve only slightly lower results.

RAILWAYS:

From the results of the railway measurements, it is clear that the overall coverage of all measured sections of the transit railway corridors by mobile operators independently of the technology (GSM, LTE and 5G) is not less than 99.70%. For tunnels, the overall coverage is lower, especially in LTE and 5G networks.

After taking into account the objective facts allowed by the auction conditions (e.g. the coverage obligation is deferred for new sections of motorways), CTU assessed the operators' obligations as fulfilled.

Reports (only in the Czech language) with the results can be found here:

Mobile network coverage of the motorways

Mobile network coverage of the railway corridors

The results are available to the public, inter alia, via the VPortal http://vportal.ctu.cz/en.

The quality of coverage inside the coaches remains a problem, especially for railway transport (which is not, however, subject to evaluation in terms of fulfilling the auction commitments). Here, lower signal quality values were measured.

The aforementioned signal issues inside the coaches will be addressed by the subsidy call "Technical devices for 5G in railway coaches", which is intended to help improve the availability and quality of mobile services inside nearly 670 train coaches. All subsidised projects must be implemented by the end of 2025, and we understand that all carriers are already implementing the measures. These days, CTU has measured the permeability of laser-treated windows in coaches of the carrier České dráhy. Measurements of the carrier RegioJet will follow.