Train-borne Antennas : A business case study

Abstract: The global rail network every year is used to transport approximately 21 billion of people and 10 billion tons of cargo. These numbers is estimated that are going to increase in the future. Railway will become the transportation of the future. The actors involved in the rail market realizing these needs started to invest funds to upgrade both the network and the electronic systems on the trains to meet the demands and attract even more customers. Currently two different electronic systems are installed on-board trains, one related to safety and security and the other for passenger services. For safety and security two different systems have deployed for signaling and train control. The first one is ERTMS system that is mainly deployed in Europe, China and other regions of the world using GSM-R technology operating at 900 MHz while the other one is solely deployed in the USA operating at 220 MHz. For passenger-services more and more operators install Wi-Fi systems on-board the train. Each of these systems has different requirements to function. The common factor of these platforms is the train-borne antenna, which plays an active role to all the systems and can improve the quality of the services provided. SMARTEQ having experience in the transportation sector, more specifically in trucks wanted to explore this growth of rail transport followed by huge investments will create openings to enter the market and expand their business portfolio. The purpose of this report is to deploy a business case for train-antennas in order to help SMARTEQ decide if there is value in the rail sector. To achieve this goal a market analysis was conducted, followed by a technical description of the systems and the needs that exist on antennas and in the end concluding with a business model. This study reveals that antenna-rail market is really difficult to enter for a new company not related to train industry and needs proper acquaintances and partnerships to become a leading supplier. In addition due to the oligopoly of the market, competition is really high and needs a unique and competitive solution both price and technology-wise to attract the end customer.