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6 Feb 2012

TETRA or GSM-R? This is 2012, neither!

By Eric Bernard,Director Business Development of Transport for EMEA, Alcatel-

Lucent

Just back from Middle-East Rail eventthat took place in Dubai from January

30thto February 2ndwhere we witnessed an interesting and animated debate about

TETRA versus GSM-R for train-to-ground communication supporting ETCS

Level 2 signaling.

The TETRA presenter was quite aggressive against GSM-R, denying its

legitimacy (going back on historical events more than 15 years old and insisting on

the fact that only one or two votes in UIC elected GSM-R against TETRA) and

predominance. Both Tetra and GSM-R promoters argued a lot around quality of

service, bandwidth efficiency per channel, call time set-up time etc. and the level

of price of different solutions.

However neither camp tackled the subject of broadband services, whichincreasingly is a real demand from rail operators. We have witnessed in recent

months a craving for more safety applications (e.g. on board video surveillance)

and for more passenger comfort and experience applications (internet access, social

networking ). Both parties are very likely feeling a weakness of their respective

systems regarding these recent requirements

The future of these technologies is becoming a hot topic. With a GSM-R

industry showing consistent signs of being willing to extend at any (high) cost the

life of their product lines, Rail Infrastructure companies have some fears about the

return on investment on such a high capital expenditure but they are also concerned

about servicing their future needs.

On the other hand, TETRA does not show great momentum and evolution

towards TETRA 2 seems stagnant at best. Additionally, we see that CASSIDIAN

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