The company has agreed with the national rail operator Deutsche Bahn that it will ensure long-distance and regional services across the country have no gaps.
“Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Bahn have a shared responsibility for their customers,” said Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom.
“That’s why we are now also tackling the issue of rail coverage together and want to ensure that customers can make phone calls, surf and stream in the best quality.”
The telco said it will install 800 new cellsites for the project and expand capacity at hundreds of other sites. Capacity asked Deutsche Telekom whether the network would be offered on a wholesale basis to other mobile operators in Germany, but the company has not yet replied.
Richard Lutz, chairman of the management board of Deutsche Bahn, said: “Our passengers rightly demand that there be gap-free coverage with the mobile communications network. We are now laying the foundations needed to achieve this.”
Deutsche Telekom said it wants to supply 7,800km of inter-city routes with data rates of more than 200Mbps by the end of 2024, and add another 13,800km of routes by the end of 2025. Less used routes will get 100Mbps by the end of 2026.
