Live Coverage: Europe’s Rail FRMCS Webinar 2026 – Deployment, Standards and Technical Progress

RAILTARGET brings you live coverage from today’s Europe’s Rail webinar dedicated to the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS), the next-generation telecommunications platform set to replace GSM-R across Europe's railway network. The session provides an update on ongoing FRMCS activities, deployment preparations, and the latest technical developments supporting the future of digital rail communications.

10:05 Pascal Desaunay, representing Europe’s Rail, opens the webinar and welcomes participants from across the European railway sector. He explains that the session will focus on deployment activities rather than research, an on the progress made by the FRMCS Deployment Working Group and outlining the topics to be discussed throughout the webinar.

Desaunay introduces David Rothbaum of Ericsson, who will later provide a detailed update on the technical work being carried out within Work Group 1. He then provides an overview of Europe’s Rail and its long-term objective of creating a more integrated and competitive European railway system for both passenger and freight transport. He explains that the programme was established to address growing challenges facing the rail sector, including rising customer expectations, increasing competition from other transport modes, climate adaptation requirements, workforce shortages, and limited investment resources.

According to Desaunay, rail operators are under pressure to improve punctuality, capacity, and service quality while simultaneously reducing costs. He says that future railway communication systems such as FRMCS must contribute to these objectives by enabling more efficient and reliable operations across Europe.

He explains that Europe’s Rail is structured around two major pillars. The Innovation Pillar focuses on testing new technologies, developing prototypes, and validating future concepts, while the System Pillar translates these findings into technical specifications and future standards.

Desaunay notes that several technologies currently being explored under Europe’s Rail, including next-generation signalling, localisation systems, and communication solutions, are already generating valuable input for future railway specifications. Some of these outputs may eventually become part of Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs), while others will remain as recommended guidance for the sector.

10:15 A major focus of the presentation is the transition from research and development towards practical deployment. Desaunay explains that while many technologies have already reached a mature stage of development, significant challenges remain before they can be implemented at scale across Europe's rail network.

He says that FRMCS deployment is no longer purely a technical issue. Questions surrounding authorisation procedures, funding models, migration strategies, operational feasibility, and infrastructure readiness are becoming increasingly important. Closing the gap between innovation and real-world deployment is therefore one of the key priorities of the Deployment Working Group.

Desaunay presents the structure of the FRMCS Deployment Group, explaining that its activities are divided into three main work streams. The first focuses on technical deployment challenges, the second on financial and economic aspects, and the third on deployment scenarios and migration strategies.

Particular attention is being paid to authorisation procedures, which recent studies have identified as a significant cost driver for future FRMCS implementation. The group is working closely with the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) to better understand how authorisation processes can be streamlined and made more efficient for large-scale deployment programmes.

Desaunay explains that deployment activities must remain aligned with developments in ETCS, Traffic Management Systems (TMS), Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC), and other digitalisation projects currently underway.

According to Desaunay, stakeholder cooperation plays a crucial role in this process. Europe’s Rail regularly works with ERA, UIC, UNIFE, the European Commission, infrastructure managers, and railway undertakings to ensure that technical decisions taken in one area do not create barriers in another. This coordinated approach is intended to accelerate deployment while maintaining interoperability across Europe.

10:20 Desaunay reviews several key outputs already produced by the Deployment Working Group. These include the first FRMCS deployment questionnaire, migration scenario reports, supplier readiness assessments, communication plans, and cost-driver studies examining the economic implications of future deployment strategies.

He notes that a second stakeholder survey has now been launched. Building on feedback from the previous edition, the new questionnaire aims to collect more detailed information on deployment plans, migration strategies, operational concerns, and the potential role of public mobile network operators in future FRMCS architectures.

10:25 David Rothbaum, Director of Business Development for Mission Critical Networks at Ericsson and Chair of Work Group 1, takes over the presentation. He begins by describing the group's mission, which is to identify and analyse technical deployment issues that could affect the future rollout of FRMCS across Europe. 

Rothbaum explains that one of the key challenges facing FRMCS deployment is the coexistence of railway and public mobile communication networks. Work Group 1 is currently examining several areas that could affect future implementation, including rooftop antenna installations, cross-border operation, agreements with mobile network operators (MNOs), onboard equipment readiness, and the use of FRMCS beyond ETCS-related applications.

He notes that many infrastructure managers are considering the use of public mobile networks alongside dedicated railway frequencies. As a result, deployment planning is increasingly focused on both technical specifications and operational responsibilities, network ownership models, and service quality requirements.

10:30 Turning to antenna deployment, Rothbaum explains that many public mobile networks already operate in frequency bands located very close to FRMCS spectrum. This creates a risk of interference between railway communication systems and commercial mobile services operating along railway corridors.

To address this, the UIC Frequency Aspects Group (UGFA) has defined minimum isolation requirements between FRMCS and neighbouring frequency bands. Current studies focus on how these isolation levels can be achieved through antenna separation, filtering technologies, or combinations of both. Freight locomotives have become a primary test case because their roof space is more limited, making antenna placement particularly challenging.

According to Rothbaum, current deployment studies are using locomotives such as Siemens Vectron models to evaluate practical installation scenarios. The objective is to develop technical guidelines covering antenna positioning, filtering solutions, and coexistence strategies based on both simulations and real-world measurements.

The findings are expected to help infrastructure managers determine which public mobile network frequencies can safely be used alongside FRMCS and what modifications may be required on rolling stock to support future deployments.

10:40 Rothbaum turns to one of the newer areas of work within the FRMCS Deployment Group: applications that could use FRMCS before ETCS Baseline 4 becomes operational. He notes that while FRMCS is primarily being developed as the successor to GSM-R, the implementation of ETCS Baseline 4 may be delayed until around 2030, creating a gap between the deployment of FRMCS and its full use for signalling purposes.

According to Rothbaum, railway undertakings may be reluctant to invest in FRMCS solely as a GSM-R replacement if the business case remains limited. The working group is therefore analysing additional applications that could generate value immediately after FRMCS deployment and before Baseline 4 becomes available.

10:45 A key focus is the consolidation of multiple onboard communication systems into a single FRMCS communication environment. Rothbaum explains that many operators currently use separate mobile gateways for different functions, including Train Control and Management Systems (TCMS), energy metering, ETCS diagnostics, and other digital services.

Under the proposed approach, these separate communication channels could be merged into a single FRMCS architecture. Data from onboard systems would be transmitted through a common gateway and carried via FRMCS using either railway-dedicated frequencies, public mobile networks, or a combination of both. The objective is to simplify onboard architecture, reduce hardware requirements, and make better use of FRMCS's significantly higher data capacity.

10:50 The working group is also examining how existing standards, including EN 61375 mobile gateway architectures, could be integrated into future FRMCS deployments. Rothbaum says the goal is to develop practical guidelines showing how onboard applications can interface with FRMCS infrastructure while maintaining compatibility with railway operational systems.

He encourages railway undertakings to participate in the process and share their digitalisation plans, stressing that operators themselves are best placed to identify which applications could benefit most from the new communication platform.

10:55 Pascal Desaunay introduces a new workstream focused on the future-proofing of onboard FRMCS equipment. The initiative emerged from recent risk assessments which identified a concern among operators that early deployments could become obsolete as future FRMCS releases introduce additional capabilities.

The new group will analyse which hardware and technical requirements should be specified during procurement to minimise the risk of future hardware replacements. The aim is to ensure that equipment purchased for early FRMCS releases remains compatible with later versions through software upgrades wherever possible.

11:00 Desaunay points out that FRMCS deployment should no longer be viewed as a distant future project. While specifications are still evolving, laboratory testing is expected to begin soon, followed by trackside and onboard trials. He encourages infrastructure managers and railway undertakings to start preparing now, particularly given the scale of future deployment programmes.

According to current estimates, around 100,000 onboard units will eventually need to be equipped across Europe. Large operators such as SNCF have already begun preparations, recognising that fleet-wide migration will take many years and require significant planning, procurement, and installation efforts.

11:05 During the Q&A session, Rothbaum addresses questions regarding network capacity and explains that high-bandwidth applications would not necessarily be limited by railway-dedicated spectrum. FRMCS multipath capabilities could combine railway frequencies with public mobile networks, allowing bandwidth-intensive services to use additional MNO capacity when needed.

The discussion also touches on reliability requirements for mobile network operators serving FRMCS, future satellite integration, certification of non-MCX applications, and the coexistence of GSM-R and FRMCS frequencies.

Responding to questions about deployment timelines, Pascal Desaunay acknowledges that the sector is facing significant pressure to finalise the upcoming Technical Specification for Interoperability (TSI). He says a key challenge is balancing the desire for a rapid rollout with the need to ensure the specifications are sufficiently mature and thoroughly tested before large-scale deployment begins.

According to Desaunay, some stakeholders are pushing for faster implementation because of growing concerns about GSM-R obsolescence, while others argue that additional testing is necessary to deliver a more stable and reliable system. He notes that discussions on this balance are still ongoing across the sector.

11:10 To support the process, countries conducting FRMCS trials are encouraged to formally declare their tests and share the results. Desaunay explains that this requirement, already included in the CCS TSI framework, allows lessons learned from national pilot projects to be fed back into the specification process. By identifying technical issues early, railway stakeholders can help improve the final standards before wider deployment begins.

He stresses that Europe’s Rail deployment groups are not directly responsible for writing the specifications but are actively involved in coordinating stakeholder feedback and ensuring that practical deployment concerns are communicated to the relevant authorities and standardisation bodies.