Israel Railways issues tender for cellular control system

Israel Railways  picture: Ben Yuster
Israel Railways picture: Ben Yuster

Bidders in the tender include Motorola and Nokia, which are making a joint bid, and an international group represented by Bynet.

Israel Railways is conducting a tender for a cellular control system. Bidders in the tender include Motorola and Nokia, which are making a joint bid, and an international group represented by Bynet. It is believed that the tender winner will be selected in the coming weeks. The GSMR center will enable Israel Railways to control and monitor everything happening with its trains at any given time. The network will facilitate control of the engine computer, with the aim of improving utilization of railway tracks by making it possible to use more trains in a given time span, while increasing safety and traveling speeds.

In the tender documents, Israel Railways states that the cellular network will work on frequencies in the 800-900 MHz band, but this is not final, pending an allocation from the Ministry of Communications. These frequencies have a clear advantage for Israel Railways in both safety and the operational aspect over frequencies in the 1,800 MHz band.

At high frequencies, the number of cellular antennas required to set up the network is double the number for low frequencies. High frequencies are also less safe due to the extent of the passages from one site to the next. The frequencies also have a direct impact on the speed of railway journeys, because at lower frequencies, trains can travel at higher speeds without a risk of having their communications being cut off.

The tender emphasizes complete communications continuity and a full backup, so the winning company will actually establish two parallel networks in order to provide maximum safety.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 27, 2016

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016

Israel Railways  picture: Ben Yuster
Israel Railways picture: Ben Yuster
Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018