Prague is extending WiFi and 4G mobile coverage to additional metro stations

WiFi, data, and voice service has just been added to additional stations in Prague’s metro.

“You can now call
or connect to the Internet in test operation between the Muzeum and
Nádraží Holešovice stations,” Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib
(Pirates) said on Facebook.

Sixteen out of 61 stations in the metro network are now covered with a 4G LTE signal. Counting previously installed service, coverage is now available from Roztyly to Nádraží Holešovice on the Metro C line.

Before the end of March 2020, coverage should be available between Českomoravská and Smíchovské nádraží on the Metro B line and between the Muzeum and Dejvice on Metro A.

“By 2020 we should
be able to cover the whole center and by 2022 complete all the
stations. And if we manage to speed up the work as we plan, we can
cover the entire metro with a signal already in 2021. Keep your
fingers crossed,” Hřib added.

“I am happy about
it. I use the metro most often when I go to or from work, and I like
to save time by reading messages, planning a calendar or handling
emails,” Hřib said, adding his thanks to the Prague Public Transit
Company (DPP) and Deputy Mayor Adam Scheinherr (Praha sobě),
responsible for transportation.

Hřib also explained
why it was taking so long to put the phone and internet signal in the
metro. “The point is that there are only a few hours to work each
day during the technical break. So if we don’t want to limit the
standard traffic, and we don’t, we have to do it gradually,” he
said. Work is done for a few hours at nights, when the metro isn’t
running.

The cables are operated by all three mobile service providers in the Czech Republic, and should last for 20 years. The system can be eventually upgraded to 5G. The average price for installing the service in each station is 10 million CZK. It varies because the distance between stations is not uniform, and there are other differences in the tunnels that sometimes make installation of cables more difficult.

Installation was
long delayed because the city and the mobile operators could not
reach an agreement on terms. A contract was finally signed in April
2018 by the previous City Hall administration, with the first
stations put into operation just before the October 2018 municipal
elections.

The Prague metro
began operation in 1974 and now has three lines. It currently has a
transit network 65.2 kilometers long. A fourth metro line is planned.