China’s 1,000km/h trains will support 5G, study on beating near-sonic challenge says

World’s largest research base for vacuum-tube maglev trains has started high-speed propulsion tests on full-scale prototype vehicles

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Scientists have developed a way to allow smartphone use on China’s new generation of high-speed maglev trains that could travel faster than commercial airliners. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 10:00am, 1 Dec 2024Updated: 11:46am, 1 Dec 2024

Passengers my be able to watch ultra-high-definition videos or enjoy online gaming on their smartphones while travelling at 1,000km/h (621mph) on high-speed trains in China.

Still under development, China’s new generation of high-speed trains can travel at speeds faster than commercial airliners through near-vacuum tubes using magnetic levitation.

At present, high-speed trains in the country operate at 350km/h, and can connect to 5G services provided by telecoms operators, maintaining connectivity even in long tunnels.

However, maintaining high-speed communication between mobile phones and base stations becomes extremely challenging at near-sonic speeds.

This is because when a phone rapidly approaches or moves away from a base station, the frequency of the signal it receives changes, and high-speed data communication heavily relies on stable high-frequency signals.

Installing and maintaining base stations in near-vacuum tubes is also very difficult. If an antenna falls off due to vibration, it could pose a serious threat to the rapidly moving train.

A research team, led by Professor Song Tiecheng with the National Key Laboratory of Mobile Communications at Southeast University, found that simply laying two parallel cables on the inner wall of the tube could solve the problem of base station installation.