Why stable internet on trains remains a challenge, even though it costs the NS millions
Originally posted by RTL Nieuws
Wi-Fi on trains would cost the NS millions every year. And that’s for a system that has a reputation for being slow, unstable, and unsafe. Why is it such a challenge to set up a good internet connection on trains?
Eighteen years after its introduction, Wi-Fi on trains seems to have been sidelined. According to De Telegraaf, only about three million passengers log on to the network each month. Yet, according to the newspaper, this would cost NS “millions of euros annually.”
According to the NS, the technology has been overtaken by increasingly faster and larger data bundles on mobile devices, but cutting costs is not an option either. NS spokesperson Oscar van Elferen told EenVandaag that the NS is obliged to offer Wi-Fi under its concession agreement. But why is the connection often so unstable?
Why is stable internet on trains still a challenge?
Jan Buis is an expert in data communication. According to him, there are two factors that make a good internet connection on trains difficult.
“Firstly, there are usually quite a few people on the train. People are largely made up of water, which is not the most conducive environment for wireless connections. The radiation does not like passing through water.”
The crowds also increase the demand for bandwidth. Everyone wants their own IP address at the same time.
“Compare it to a highway. If you drive on it early in the morning, you can make good speed on your own, but during rush hour you’re stuck in traffic. It’s the same with wireless internet.”
In addition, the train is a moving object. The connectivity with our mobile devices works via a wireless Wi-Fi connection in much the same way as with our 5G connections: via roaming.
“You drive away from one cell tower and have to reconnect to the next one. A train travels at extremely high speeds, so you whiz past them quickly. That wave motion is difficult to eliminate and means that you continue to experience instability.”
And how do they do that in countries like Japan and Switzerland?
“I can imagine that in those super-fast Japanese trains, they establish a Wi-Fi connection via satellite. I don’t know for sure, but the emergency services in the Netherlands do the same thing, for example. Although the principle of roaming remains the same, these are more stable connections because you don’t have to switch base stations as often.”
“The Swiss are lucky with their many gorges and valleys, where they can aim their transmission masts very precisely at the trains. Moreover, they don’t have to transmit all the way up the mountain because few people live there. And the trains often travel slightly slower, which is also an advantage.”
Does the NS have an alternative?
“There are certainly systems available that would work much better, but they are all a lot more expensive. For example, I was once involved in a project in Germany where they wanted to place access points on every train electicity pole. This improves the distance to the train, but it is also expensive. You see this technology being used in gondolas to ski and hiking areas in the mountains, for example. So it is possible, but it is costly. At the moment, I think the NS has other priorities. Wi-Fi on trains remains, of course, primarily a luxury.”
The NS has announced that the new double-decker trains that have been ordered and are due to enter service in 2029 will be equipped for the 5G network. It is not yet known whether the other trains will also switch to the 5G network or continue to run on 4G. “We will monitor Wi-Fi usage over the coming period,” said a spokesperson for the NS.
Translated by DeepL and adapted personally aftewards