Telecommunications Giant, Huawei has been selected to provide Ethiopia’s light rail communication system in the capital city, Addis Ababa. Cellular news stated that Huawei will be Africa’s first comprehensive commercial eLTE communications infrastructure for urban railways. high population density and congested traffic has been a major characteristic of Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa which is a hub for the economy and transportation. Commuters using public transportation often rely on minibuses that offer infrequent service, long queues and sparsely located stations.
475 million dollars was invested by the Ethiopian Government on the Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit project, which is expected to be completed by January 2015 by the China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Company Limited.
The first phase of this project consists of the roll out of a 31 kilometer South-North and East-West railway lines with a control center and 39 stations. Once completed, the entire railway is expected to carry 60,000 passengers per hour.
After assessing the project requirements, Huawei designed a Mass Transit eLTE Multi-Service Unified Bearer communications solution to facilitate communications along the railway.
The urban mass transit communication solution includes multiple technologies such as fixed network, eLTE wireless network, video surveillance, IP Telephony and IT. The subsystems facilitate dispatching, multi-service bearing, surveillance, data storage and unified communications.
Following Huawei’s projects with Zhengzhou Metro and Shuohuang Railway, the Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit project is part of the company’s plans to promote the deployment of eLTE technology for the railway industry.
