Line 15, whose commissioning is scheduled for the end of 2025, will be the first European metro entirely equipped with this technology.
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The mobile internet, in 3G and 4G, took years to arrive in the Paris metro. 5G, the latest generation of mobile telephony, will be accessible from the first trips of future Greater Paris metro lines. Line 15, including the southern section between the Pont de Sèvres (Hauts-de-Seine) and Noisy-Champs stations (straddling Seine-Saint-Denis and Seine-et-Marne) must enter into service The end of 2025 will even be the very first European metro entirely covered in 5G. The equipment installed in the tunnels, the stations and the corridors will allow subscribers to use their mobile phones as if they were outdoors, and without losing the service when they enter or leave the metro.
For this section, more than a thousand 5G routers, a sort of large modems provided by the South Korean Solid supplier, will be fixed at the walls of the 16 stations and the 33 kilometers of tunnel. All the complexity of the site is due to the nature of the environment, “all underground, with stations buried on several floors and many corridors, which requires determining the best locations to ensure good coverage”, explains Thierry Papin, Director General of Totem in France, the Orange subsidiary specializing in the deployment of mobile networks, which won the call for tenders launched by the Grand Paris company. The four French operators (Bouygues, Free Mobile, Orange and SFR) will rent this shared equipment so that their subscribers can make their calls. Completely supported by Totem, the investment required to build this “neutral” network exceeds 10 million euros.
air conditioned technical rooms
Unlike intramural lines of the Paris metro, built for almost all of them before the invention of the mobile phone, the Grand Paris Express site, which brings together the four new lines 15, 16, 16, 17 and 18, provides in its architecture the presence of air -conditioned technical premises necessary for the proper functioning of mobile phone equipment. To bring 4G in the Paris metro, the main difficulty, in addition to the dust weakening the equipment, resided in the absence of such air conditioned premises in the stations. This explains the late arrival of the mobile internet in the trains and on the quays.
Lines 16 and 17, which will start to circulate gradually from mid-2026, will be equipped according to the same principle by the Spanish Cellnex. The call for tenders for line 18 is underway. Totem has planned to compete. Nicolas Roy, the CEO of Totem, also aims at other similar projects, “like extensions of metro lines or places to gather crowds like stages”. With, in sight, the 5G equipment of the 2024 Olympic Games sites in Paris.