High Speed 2 Ltd, which is a non-departmental public body that is wholly funded by the UK Government’s Department for Transport (DfT) and oversees the HS2 rail project, has signed a £99.6m deal with Hitachi and Telent to design and deploy telecommunications services across the new rail network, including passenger voice and broadband connectivity.
The contract itself, which is expected to run for thirteen and a half years, will see Hitachi and Telent (Joint Venture) become “responsible for the design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning” of a range of telecommunications platforms (Ethernet, WiFi, ESN and mobile cellular etc.), before later acting as the “interim operator” until the works can be handed over to a “long-term operating partner“.
The deal is focused on the operational needs of HS2 but will also cover “passenger communication systems“, which includes infrastructure that can be used to support the provision of “voice and data mobile communications” (4G, 5G etc.) for HS2 “users in stations and on the trains“. This includes adding full support for the 4G based Emergency Services Network (ESN).
This is of course subject to Hitachi and Telent being able to reach commercial agreements with the UK’s primary mobile operators, such as EE, O2, Three UK and Vodafone (although Voda and Three will be one entity by the time this all comes to pass). More info. can be found on Public Technology‘s page.