BEIJING-China’s Ministry of Railways has selected Nortel Networks Ltd. to provide a digital wireless communications network for the world’s highest altitude rail service-the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
Nortel said this will be the first commercial use of GSM for Railways (GSM-R) technology in China, following a year-long trial of Nortel’s technology across more than 186 kilometers of track built on perennially frozen land at altitudes up to 4,780 meters above sea level.
The 1,142-kilometer Qinghai-Tibet Railway will be the first in China supported solely by GSM-R communications with no traditional analog system available for back-up communications. It will also be the first railway in China to use GSM-R to transmit safety data for train control and the first to adopt double coverage solutions to enhance system safety, reliability and availability. In addition, it will be the first GSM-R infrastructure in China to incorporate GPRS for data applications.
“This new wireless network represents the most up-to-date communications technology available to the railway industry worldwide, and we are pleased to move beyond the trial to now fully implement the Nortel GSM-R solution,” said Shu Kai Hu, vice chief executive of National Quinghai-Tibet Railway Construction Administration Office.
