NEC Portugal supplies GSM-R radios to Finnish railway operator VR-Group

NEC Portugal, a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Europe, in partnership with Malux Finland Oy, its sales channel to the Finnish market, was selected by the Finnish railways operator VR-Group to equip the driving cabinets of a set of locomotives with the NEC RC900 GSM-R radio and its DMI900 control console (Driver Machine Interface).

The project will run for six months and includes the development of several features specific to the Finnish railways, which shall be developed by NEC Portugal’s GSM-R Railway Communications Competence Center.

Armando Xavier, NEC Portugal enterprise sales manager said: “NEC Portugal’s competitiveness and technical competence were crucial for NEC to be selected for this project, allowing us to offer a proposal that met all the customer requirements. Particularly in terms of the quality of the solution and the flexibility and ability demonstrated to implement all the specific features required by VR-Group.”

The NEC RC900 cabinet radio offers an innovative set of features that allow railway operators to more efficiently perform their everyday tasks. Functions include an event log, which stores the last communication made through the radio, resulting in better control of train movements and safety, or the possibility of upgrading the software radio, “Over The Air” (OTA), which reduces the amount of time trains are stopped for maintenance purposes, resulting in greater railway efficiency.

Main features of the NEC GSM-R radio include:

• “Over-The-Air” (OTA) Software Update via CSD (Circuit Switched Data), GPRS or WiFi;
• Access Portal for radio configuration and remote reading of the event log, including: alarms, test results, keys pressed;
• High storage capacity (4GB SD-CARD);
• Availability of GPS location information;
• Availability of up to two modules of 8 Watt GSM-R, for voice and data communications or redundant configuration.

In 2005, NEC Portugal became involved in the creation of a GSM-R Railway Communications Competence Centre in Portugal, and has greatly invested in developing its own products and knowledge in this technology. This Competence Centre, whose main objective is the development of innovative GSM-R solutions for railway operators, has also been supporting the international sale of its GSM-R products, in consideration of these technologies’ strong growth from their adoption by railway operators throughout the world.