The Chinese Ministry of Railways (MoR) and the China Railway Signaling and Communication Corporation have chosen Nokia Siemens Networks to provide a GSM-Railway (GSM-R) network for the planned Dedicated Passenger Line (DPL) between Wuhan and Guangzhou in southern China. Under the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks will supply a total GSM-R solution, including base stations, a core network, Intelligent Network, an advanced high-speed railway tunnel communication solution and services. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2009. The contract was initially signed by Siemens Communications.

“This order is another milestone for us in GSM-R in China,” said Mr. Zhang Zhiqiang, head of the Greater China Region, Nokia Siemens Networks. “Winning such a high profile contract not only enhances our leadership in this field, but also demonstrates our customers’ endorsement of the merger that has formed Nokia Siemens Networks. As railway construction in China makes ever more rapid progress, Nokia Siemens Networks will continue to support the development of Chinese railways by providing advanced technology, solutions, and strong railway know how, as well as the most reliable services.”

The Wuhan-Guangzhou DPL will be 968 kilometers in length and is designed for a maximum speed of 350 km/h, making it by far the longest high-speed railway in the world. GSM-R is based on the GSM standard and takes into account the special demands of communications in trains. GSM-R is used for voice and data communications and supports functions such as group calls and call prioritization. ETCS L2 (European Train Control System level 2) is the industry’s most advanced specification for railway signaling and control systems.

Nokia Siemens Networks is one of the inventors of GSM-R technology, with Siemens researching and creating the GSM-R standard starting in the early 1990s. The world’s earliest three GSM-R trial networks and the first commercial network, all supplied by Nokia Siemens Networks, have validated that our GSM-R system fulfills highly sophisticated railway needs. To date Nokia Siemens Networks has deployed GSM-R networks in 17 countries serving 50,000 km of railways, making it the world’s Number One GSM-R vendor in both number of commercial networks and length of operated GSM-R lines.