Large radio gap on ICE route in Müritz National Park is closed
How can digitalization and nature conservation be brought together? This was the subject of the project to close a radio gap in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
ICE route through the Müritz National Park.
(Image: Deutsche Telekom)
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a large dead zone is to be closed. According to Deutsche Telekom, this is the largest dead zone along an ICE route. The national park administration, the district administration of the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district and Deutsche Telekom agreed to erect 14 new mobile phone masts along the railroad line between Neustrelitz and Waren, nine of them in the Müritz National Park. The route is around 30 kilometers long and runs through national park territory. Up to now, train passengers on this route have had to cross a dead zone for around 20 minutes.
The parties involved tried to find a compromise to improve mobile phone coverage on the one hand and to respect the natural landscape on the other. According to the press release, this now provides for the planned new mobile phone masts along the railroad line to be 25 meters high instead of the usual 30 to 40 meters.
Building applications towards the fall
The masts would not be taller than the trees, the landscape would not be disturbed and species protection and automated forest fire monitoring would be guaranteed, Telekom writes. The number of masts, which is double the usual number, ensures continuous mobile phone coverage along the railroad line. Camera surveillance is not impaired, while at the same time ensuring that data can be transmitted.
The radio gap cannot be closed immediately; some details still need to be clarified before the building applications can be submitted to the district administration office at the end of this summer. The office has already been directly involved in the negotiations, so the planning applications can be processed quickly, said Heiko Kärger, District Administrator of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte. Ulf Zimmermann, Head of the Müritz National Park Authority, explained that the additional planning effort was due to the fact that standard solutions are not suitable for the national park.
In order to improve mobile phone reception in trains in general, Deutsche Bahn is running the "Gigabit Innovation Track" pilot project together with Ericsson, Telefónica Deutschland and Vantage Towers. Vantage Towers has erected 13 innovative radio masts on a 12-kilometer test track in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. These are anchored in the ground using standardized bases that can be manufactured in series. No more complex foundations need to be poured. The 15-metre-high masts blend into the landscape and in some places they did not need to be approved, according to an interim report in May of this year.
(anw)
