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From 2019, SBB will carry out a pilot test of free surfing. Swisscom customers are left behind.
SBB customers should be able to navigate freely and without restrictions in trains in the future. To this end, SBB is conducting a technology test under the name of SBB FreeSurf in 2019, after informing the guest press at the CFF Zurich Herdern. The free Internet is based on the 3G / 4G mobile phone and should provide a "faster and smoother Internet connection with more bandwidth than WLAN".
The WLAN in the train acts as a bottleneck: Wi-Fi signals from different users are grouped together and must be transferred over the mobile network for a few connections from the rolling stock.
Test on three routes
The technology test is carried out on the 44 intercity commuter trains (ICN), which serve the two lines IC5 and IC51 between Zurich-Geneva, St. Gallen-Lausanne and Basel-Biel.
For customers without a Swiss SIM card – for example tourists – a mobile point of access solution will be tested as part of the test. From 2020, free internet will be available on all SBB long distance trains.
Customers who have a package can not benefit from the free Internet, according to SBB. However, SBB wants to offer these customers added value. For example, the application should offer a digital newsstand and disseminate targeted information to customers.
SBB-Free Surf Apps
What should the SBB FreeBSurf app look like?
(Source: nmgz / cm)
Customers need the SBB FreeSurf app for the Internet
(Source: nmgz / cm)
Customers need the "CFF FreeSurf" app to access the internet for free. You must register once. Take part in the test with a mobile device and a Swiss SIM card. In addition, you must be a customer of Salt or Sunrise, because until now, only make these two mobile operators in the test. SBB is in discussion with other mobile service providers.
This is what a tag looks like. A coin costs 15 to 20 francs. SBB buys about 1,000 tags for their 44 closed-circuit cars
(Source: nmgz / cm)
If you enter an ICN train, the client is located via a so-called tag. A beacon is a mini-transmitter that can send a message to the smartphone via Bluetooth Low Energy. Tags can only send, not receive.
The customer opens the previously installed SBF FreeSurf app and confirms that he wants to use the free internet. Once logged in, he will receive a confirmation that he can immediately surf for free with his mobile operator. If he leaves the train or terminates the connection, the user of the application will again receive a message informing him that the free Internet access is no longer active. The CFF Freesurf app works with Android and iOS.
Mark Brandl, head of innovation at SBB, explains how the application works:
The customer only asks for the mobile phone number. Users will not be registered. "We do not know where you are," says Mark Brandl, head of innovation at SBB. In the longer term, this service will be integrated with the regular application of CFF.
Mobile transmissive discs
With regard to the new 5G mobile radio standard, SBB will now use not only repeaters (signal amplifiers) but also laser perforated windows. These have a higher mobile phone transmission.
These disks are installed during new purchases or modernization of trains. Laser perforated windows have been on the market for two years. SBB models from several manufacturers are currently being tested.
Over the next few years, more than 13,000 mobile-type windows will be used
(Source: CFF)
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