Polish railway operator PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe (PKP PLK) has awarded a five-year contract to Nokia and its partners Herkules, Pozbud and Wasko to deploy a nationwide turnkey GSM-Railway (GSM-R) and mission-critical backhaul network.

After completion, the new network will enable PKP PLK to fulfil all new EU requirements for the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), as well as improve railway security and reliability across the country.

A key component of ERTMS, GSM-R helps railway operators to manage train operations in combination with the European Train Control System.

The overall project will be jointly funded by the EU and the Polish Government.

“Nokia is a natural choice for this kind of ambitious rollout.”

Nokia Europe global enterprise and public sector senior vice-president Matthieu Bourguignon said: “Nokia is proud and excited to be a trusted partner for Poland’s digitalisation, and building the railway communications network is a key part of this.

“Based on our expertise as a 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.”

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Under the terms of the contract, Nokia will be responsible for installing, commissioning, third-party integration and maintenance for 13,800km of the GSM-R network.

The company will also be in charge of 11,000km of optical fibre-based backhaul network infrastructure with IP Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS) and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical network equipment.

The deliveries will include a complete GSM-R solution, an IP-MPLS core network, security, and DWDM technology for the fibre-optic network.

Herkules, Pozbud and Wasko will carry out civil works under the project.

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