Mumbai: Following a successful demonstration at Mumbai Central, RailTel plans to introduce Radio Access Network (RAN) at eight more stations, including Dadar, Charni Road, Prabhadevi Churchgate and Marine Lines, giving passengers improved mobile phone connectivity.
RailTel and CloudExtel, a full-stack Network as a Service (NaaS) Provider, recently partnered together to launch India’s first Shared RAN solution for congested locations with the objective of enhancing telecom users’ experience at Mumbai Central.
RailTel and CloudExtel carried out the pilot in partnership with Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, Nokia and the Telecom Infra Project’s (TIP) NaaS Solutions Group, with support from the railways.
The outcomes of the pilot project have been impressive with a five-fold increase in average user speed of mobile data (from 3 Mbps to 15 Mbps) for the networks of both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, while data consumption went up 20 percent.
Locations like traffic junctions, airports and railway stations are high-density areas for network congestion. Challenges multiply especially in cities like Mumbai, which are densely populated.
The success of the Shared RAN solution holds promises for customers. In the initial phase of the project, focus will be on extending this technology at more railway stations in Mumbai.
Aruna Singh, chairman and managing director of RailTel, said her organization is committed to facilitating seamless connectivity and enhanced experience for passengers.
The speed and data consumption enabled by Shared RAN validated belief in the technology, and RailTel is now looking forward to scaling this in all congested areas serving passengers while reducing the clutter of infrastructure and energy consumption in other railway stations too, she said.
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