Amtrak on track with its own LTE-A network and Wi-Fi overhaul

Amtrak is embarking on a multi-year program aimed at overhauling its current Wi-Fi service, which has earned a not-so-stellar reputation particularly in the Northeast. But it's on a path to change that – as well as roll out what Amtrak describes as pioneering technology for rail in the US. Amtrak knows how popular Wi-Fi is with its customers. Up to 50 percent of customers connect to its free Wi-Fi service. However, Amtrak currently is receiving less than 10 megabits per second to the trains, and the capacity crunch is getting worse.

Because Amtrak depends on commercial wireless carriers, it also experiences congestion when everybody jumps online, so in order to get around that, it's building its own LTE-Advanced network. As one can imagine, delivering wireless communications on trains is challenging. Unlike planes that are high in the sky, line-of-sight is more of an issue on the ground when trains are going through sometimes rugged terrain, under tree canopies and the like. And while heavy congestion in the Northeast corridor is affecting the quality of service, Amtrak's trains spend a lot of time going through parts of the country that don't have cell towers. Even though Amtrak has a solution that aggregates available bandwidth from all the major US carriers, there are coverage gaps.