Nokia has signed a five-year contract to deploy a nationwide turnkey GSM-R and mission-critical backhaul network for Poland's state-owned railway operator PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe (PKP PLK).
This project, Nokia's largest-ever GSM-R contract, will provide PKP/PLK with one of the biggest state-of-the-art railway communications networks in Europe.
Once completed, the new network will enable the PLK railway company to fulfil European Union requirements for ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System), the bloc's European-wide standard for railway signaling. The project is majority funded by the EU, and complemented by Polish State funds.
GSM-R is a mandatory part of the ERTMS, which is under deployment across Europe to help rail operators like PKP PLK seamlessly manage and control trains in combination with the European Train Control System. The solution will help PKP PLK increase train traffic reliability and safety, ultimately improving passenger satisfaction, said Nokia.
Nokia will provide installation, commissioning, third-party integration, first-line care and maintenance for 13,800 km of the GSM-R network, plus more than 11 000 km of optical fiber-based backhaul network infrastructure with IP Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS) and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical network equipment.
It includes an end-to-end GSM-R solution (radio and core network including NetAct, Messaging and diverse third-party products), an IP-MPLS core network, security, and DWDM technology for the fiber-optic network.
Matthieu Bourguignon, SVP Europe, Global Enterprise & Public Sector, Nokia
Based on our expertise as market leader in GSM-R and critical communications networks, our unparalleled experience in turnkey projects and our successful long-term history in large-scale network deployments in Poland, Nokia is a natural choice for this kind of ambitious rollout.
