Train travellers should be able to talk on their mobile phones and surf the internet virtually uninterrupted in future, after Deutsche Bahn and Vodafone agreed to jointly work to close the remaining “grey zones” on the German rail network.
According to the terms of the agreement, Vodafone will invest in the necessary infrastructure for customers to reach 225 megabits per second on the 4G network along 7.800 kilometres of track, by mid-2025 at the latest. Vodafone also wants to activate its 5G network along important ICE and IC routes.
Hannes Ametsreiter, the head of Vodafone Germany, said that nine of 10 rail passengers use mobile internet or make calls on their smartphones while travelling, and “they are still annoyed far too often by dead spots.”
Last summer, Deutsche Bahn made similar agreements with Deutsche Telekom, the largest phone operator in Germany, while another agreement with Telefónica (O2) is still in the works. Telekom announced last year that it would have uninterrupted service on all train lines from 2026, and a data rate of at least 200 megabits per second along all ICE routes by the end of 2024.