Most trains these days come with specially coated windows to keep the heat out. Unfortunately these windows also block the RF waves of wireless networks. While most high speed trains in Germany these days compensate for the loss with RF repeaters many regional and inter-city trains don’t come with the luxury. Thus, without really strong network coverage outside, passengers are pretty much sitting in a moving coverage hole. But there seems to be a fix for this now.
According to this post over at Futurezone.at (in German), researchers at Siemens Austria have developed a new way of applying insulation coating to train windows that keeps the heat out while letting radio waves through. In the post they say that the windows are more expensive than conventionally coated windows but still affordable enough that they can be used in practice. Local trains for a new regional rail service between the Rhein and the Ruhr river in Germany will be the first to be equipped with the new windows. This is the second great news in the post, it’s not something theoretical that might or might not be used in the future, it’s already been sold!
Yay!
Nice, I didn’t know that was the reason