By Tanya Weaver Wed 17 Sep 2025
Collected at: https://eandt.theiet.org/2025/09/17/worlds-first-commercial-5g-railway-network-1900-mhz-tested-germany
The world’s first commercial 5G network on the 1,900 MHz band for railways has been successfully trialled in Germany.
Global telecoms firm Nokia and national rail company Deutsche Bahn (DB) implemented the 5G network at DB’s digital railway test field in the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge).
Using Nokia’s 5G Standalone (SA) core, the network operates in the 1,900MHz radio frequency band (or n101) and is being tested live on outdoor railway tracks.
This dedicated spectrum forms the foundation for the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS), a 5G-based standard designed for real-time, mission-critical communications between infrastructure and trains.
The legacy Global System for Mobile Communications for Railway (GSM-R) network is to be phased out and replaced with the FRMCS standard. The live deployment of the 1,900MHz radio network on DB’s test tracks marks a significant first step in this migration.
The deployment at the DB test field combines Nokia AirScale radios and an optimised 5G SA core to provide built-in failover, self-healing capabilities and real-time monitoring to ensure high availability and operational efficiency.
Rainer Fachinger, head of telecom platforms at DB InfraGO, said: “This deployment on test tracks builds on a successful pre-FRMCS 5G trial conducted with Nokia and aims to standardise our private mobile network as a foundation for further pilots and future roll-out.”
Rolf Werner, head of Europe at Nokia, said: “We are proud to deliver the first-ever commercial 5G solution that utilises the 1,900MHz spectrum band on the rail track.
“This is a milestone that will unlock key benefits for DB, including automated train operations, smart maintenance, and intelligent infrastructure and stations. We believe this launch will serve as an important benchmark for FRMCS upgrades in rail networks around the world in the coming years.”
The solution will also support Europe’s FP2-MORANE-2 project, which builds on earlier FRMCS initiatives to advance the rail digitalisation across Europe.
Leave a Reply