First use of 5G technology on trains to enable faster, high-quality streaming required by most smart phones
Offers a unique opportunity to improve connectivity for rail infrastructure as well as customers
As demand for fast reliable Wi-Fi on public transport grows exponentially, FirstGroup and Blu Wireless are today announcing a project to significantly-boost the quality of connectivity on trains, by pioneering the use of 5G technology on the railway. The new technology is so powerful it will enable reliable streaming, rapid browsing and connectivity to cloud-based applications like Office 365 – keeping pace with the requirements of devices that many customers take for granted.
Rail operators have long-sought to improve the quality of Wi-Fi and faced significant cost and technical challenges in doing so. Now, Blu Wireless, FirstGroup and other strategic partners including Network Rail, the Department for Transport and the Department for Culture Media and Sport, have developed an economically viable, end-to-end 5G solution that will transform customers’ journeys. The new technology can process volumes of data 100 times greater than currently possible with 4G technology, meaning it will be much easier for customers to enjoy consistent and fast Wi-Fi connectivity on their train.
The partnership will also be a market first for the UK, with FirstGroup’s Rail Division becoming the exclusive supplier of Blu Wireless’s new 5G rail system for customers and rail infrastructure providers. FirstGroup and Blu Wireless will work to roll out the technology, initially on the South Western Railway franchise. It will also work with Network Rail to harness 5G to improve railway infrastructure.
Simon Holmes, FirstGroup’s Head of Digital Communication said: “We have worked hard over the last two-and-a-half years to reach this point which will enable us to deploy 5G technology for the benefit of customers and railway infrastructure. Our partnership with Blu Wireless marks a step change for connectivity on customer trains and we look forward to working with them and our other partners to ensure the success of this project.”
Mark Barrett, CMO of Blu Wireless, added: “This partnership will revolutionise commuter connectivity in an innovative and economical way. The system is based on Blu Wireless’s unique ‘mmWave’ communication technology which does not require the hugely complex and expensive infrastructure of cellular systems. We believe that the combination of gigabit grade data rate with cost-effective and low power operation will be instrumental in delivering FirstGroup’s customers with best in class on train Wi-Fi services.”
Hugh Clancy, First Rail’s Commercial Director said: “I’d like to thank the many suppliers and partners who are making this project successful, especially the Department for Transport; we are working together to deliver a giant leap forward for our customers. With the ongoing support of Network Rail, this project will see South Western Railway become the UK’s first 5G railway”
Henry Nurser, CEO of Blu Wireless commented: “We are proud to be working with our partners to deliver such an innovative solution to rail customers in the UK and beyond – a solution that has been developed and championed by British Government and industry leaders.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
Background
- FirstGroup and Blu Wireless have been working together for several years to develop and optimise a 5G trackside-to-train communications solution to address the general lack of 4G coverage of our Train Operations
- Passengers are heavy users of Wi-Fi/mobile data not only for catching up on social media and box sets but also for planning their onward journey, finalising work deliverables, emails and finetuning a sales pitch.
- FirstGroup wants to deliver the best possible customer experience and this means providing superfast, reliable connections on our trains.
- The search for a 5G solution began with research at the University of Bristol and rapidly became a development with Blu Wireless for the 5G Radio portion of the end-to-end, train and trackside solution. This has proven that together we can consistently deliver over 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) throughput to a moving train, where up to 800 customers on a peak service often share far less than a 20th of this capacity, which can be unusable.
The Technology
The key enabling technology in this project are Blu Wireless’s rail 5G radio system designed for high-speed transport applications, that through electronic beamforming on transit and receive antennas can creates a moving point-to-point connection of greater than 1Gbps per antenna. Noting that we may have up to 3 on-train antennas in-beam at any moment, this gives a combined multi-gigabit capability. However, it is not just a unique 5G radio system but its combination with trackside networking, specialist poles and mounts (trackside and on train), new deployment methods, that all go towards making a viable rail optimised solution that can be deployed at speed almost anywhere in the world.
The trackside radio unit is designed to be exceptionally small, making it simple to deploy in a variety of locations; from on simple short trackside poles to a gantry, stanchion or even a platform lighting pole. The millimetre wave radio operates at exceptionally low power (approximately 1% of the power of a typical 4G base station) and as Ofcom has recently concluded, this is the only realistic spectrum with sufficient bandwidth to satisfy the multi-gigabit rail requirement.
FirstGroup
FirstGroup is a leading provider of transport services in the UK and North America. With £6.4 billion in revenue and around 100,000 employees, we transported 2.1 billion passengers last year. Whether for business, education, health, social or recreation – we get our customers where they want to be, when they want to be there. We create solutions that reduce complexity, making travel smoother and life easier. We provide easy and convenient mobility, improving quality of life by connecting people and communities.
Each of our five divisions is a leader in its field: In North America, First Student is the largest provider of home-to-school student transportation with a fleet of 42,000 yellow school buses, First Transit is one of the largest providers of outsourced transit management and contracting services, while Greyhound is the only nationwide operator of scheduled intercity coaches. In the UK, First Bus is one of Britain's largest bus companies with 1.6 million passengers a day, and First Rail is one of the country's largest and most experienced rail operators, carrying more than 260 million passengers in 2017/18.
First Rail
FirstGroup is one of the largest and most experienced rail operators in the UK and the only one to run every type of railway - long distance, regional, commuter and sleeper operations. We carried more than 260 million passengers in 2017/18.
- We operate three passenger franchises – Great Western Railway, South Western Railway and TransPennine Express – and one open access service, Hull Trains.
- We operate the London Trams network on behalf of Transport for London, carrying around 29 million passengers a year and will begin operating the Heathrow Express service, in partnership with Heathrow Airport, in 2018.
For more information about FirstGroup and our divisions please visit www.firstgroupplc.com and follow us @firstgroupplc on Twitter.
Blu Wireless
Blu Wireless is disrupting the market with wireless technology of fibre level performance that is cost-effective and reliable. Blu Wireless has a strong history in developing technology for various millimetre wave frequency bands and 5G applications – with multiple unique features designed for use in transport and infrastructure markets.
Delivering its intelligent System IP to licensees is at its core, but with expertise in everything from IC design to product hardware, and from signal processing to network software, Blu Wireless has much more to offer. The Blu Wireless team have engineered solutions to the technical challenges faced in mmWave carrier-grade applications.
A trusted partner of the world’s biggest names in telecoms, Blu Wireless works together with their customers to serve emerging markets in high-speed transport and ultrafast fixed line broadband.