PRASA and Huawei to Deploy Sub-Saharan Africa’s First GSM Railway

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Shenzhen, China, April 17, 2013 – Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, announced its partnership with the Passenger Railway Agency of South Africa (PRASA), the state-owned enterprise responsible for most passenger rail services in South Africa, to deploy the first GSM-R network in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Under the agreement, Huawei will provide PRASA with its latest evolution of wireless rail communication technology providing operational voice and data services for the country’s commuter railways, which will span a total of 1,200km across South Africa. The system will be capable to provide most demanding communication services for ETCS/ERTMS train control systems. A full series of network infrastructure products and solutions, including distributed GSM-R Base Stations, IP Core Network and Optical Transmission equipment, will be implemented in the coming months during the first phase of the project. PRASA aims to complete the upgrade of its railway network by 2015. Upon completion, this will be the first GSM-R network in Sub-Saharan Africa, bringing substantial benefits to railway passengers by improving transportation efficiency and punctuality through enhanced operational communication.

“GSM-R is our passport to the future. We are confident that Huawei will allow PRASA to achieve its objectives in terms of a punctual rail system, comfortable and pleasant service to our commuters, and thus, restore public confidence in the South African railway system,” says Mr. Lucky Montana, Group CEO of PRASA.

Huawei’s modern IP based GSM-R solution helps PRASA to improve rail operational efficiency through communication features specifically designed for and specified by railway operators throughout the world. As part of an ERTMS solution GSM-R helps PRASA to use rail infrastructure more efficiently and simply allows to have more trains on track than with legacy technologies. ERTMS is widely applied by leading railways in Europe, China and the Middle East helping them to maintain a timely, efficient and most importantly safe rail operation.

“We are very pleased to forge this partnership with PRASA. Huawei’s mission is to deliver innovative, affordable, and customized ICT products and solutions that are able to meet the dynamic needs of our customers and end-users. We are committed to working with PRASA and our partners to jointly address the challenges with the help of our ICT portfolio perfectly engineered to ensure a high-quality railway ecosystem and promote the sound development of the ICT industry and society at large,” says Mr. Liu Zhongheng, President of Huawei Enterprise for East and Southern Africa.

For more than 15 years, PRASA has been running South Africa’s Metrorail using a traditional analog radio system, which main purpose was to provide ground to train voice services.

Huawei Enterprise’s GSM-R (GSM for Railways) technology is vital for improving rail network safety, offering critical communication functions so that train drivers, controllers, civil engineers and crew members that work along the railway line can communicate with each other, and ultimately provide PRASA customers with an enhanced services experience that is secure and reliable. Offering standardized railway solutions, Huawei’s GSM-R portfolio allows railway communications to be interoperable between various railway companies and ensures the highest level of service quality at all times for conventional trains, cargo and high speed trains. Huawei’s GSM-R solution will be deployed along 1.200km of PRASA’s rail network of which key areas will apply ETCS-L2 technology enabling ERTMS through Huawei’s GSM-R solution as a bearer service. Offering standardized railway solutions, Huawei’s GSM-R portfolio allows railway communications to be interoperable between various railway companies and ensures the highest level of service quality at all times.

The new GSM-R network with the support of a start of the art digital fixed line dispatching system offers critical functions that enable train conductors, controllers, civil engineers and crew members to communicate more efficiently. The system can guarantee reliable performance at the speed of up to 500 km/h (310 mph) without any communication loss. It will also provide automatic train protection and introduce semi–automatic train driving capacity in the network, thereby reducing the probability of train accidents due to driver error.

A country-wide project, the digital signaling radio system will be installed in rail networks across all PRASA regions, the first phase including Cape Town, Durban and Gauteng, significantly improving the efficiency of public transportation in South Africa.

Huawei has been committed to GSM-R technologies since 2002 and has established worldwide leadership in the creation of communication networks that integrate reliable railway information services, systems and software applications into a single ICT system. Offering standardized railway solutions, Huawei’s GSM-R portfolio allows railway communications to be interoperable between various railway companies and ensures the highest level of service quality at all times for conventional trains, cargo and high speed trains. Leveraging its extensive technical expertise and industry experience, Huawei has successfully deployed GSM-R into rail administration in Asia, Australia and Europe, with networks covering more than 13,000 km railway line.

From Left to Right: Sorin Balta, Signaling and Telecommunications General Manager at PRASA; Liu Zhongheng, President of Huawei Enterprise Business in the East and Southern Africa Region; Lucky Montana, CEO of PRASA; Laurence Savage, Chief Operating Officer of Altech Group; Zubair Munshi, Managing Director of Altech Radio Holdings