Interview spotlight: Kapsch CarrierCom

With a market share of 52% of the GSM-R global market, measured in kilometers of railway tracks covered by GSM-R railway infrastructure, Kapsch CarrierCom is the number one supplier worldwide. In an interview for Global Railway Review, Kapsch CarrierCom’s Vice President of GSM-R, Michel Clement, tells us what railway operators are benefiting from Kapsch’s expertise and how the company will ensure they remain the global market leader.

Kapsch CarrierCom has longstanding experience in the railway marketplace. What projects would you say have been the most important for not only Kapsch CarrierCom as a business, but for the railway industry?

Michel Clement, Vice President of GSM-R, Kapsch CarrierCom

We are very glad that, for example, the largest railway operators such as in Germany, France, the United Kingdom or Algeria, rely on Kapsch CarrierCom’s expertise due to our extensive experience. It is our goal to handle all our clients equally – on the highest possible level. Therefore, we see all of our contracts as equally important for us. But to give some examples: Kapsch is the sole supplier of GSM-R to French Rail Network (RFF) and Britain as the selected partner of Network Rail. Kapsch also has a 90% market share of German Rail’s (DB) GSM-R contracts, which is the largest GSM-R network in the world. Recently, the Polish railway PKP/PLK signed a major contract with Kapsch CarrierCom. Therefore, we are at the moment in the middle of the deployment of the digital train radio system for the Polish railways – the third largest rail network in Europe.

Kapsch CarrierCom has recently exhibited at industry trade shows around the world. How important is it for Kapsch CarrierCom to attend these exhibitions and what can visitors expect to see/learn from visiting your company stands?

Kapsch CarrierCom is very selective when it comes to trade show participations. Traditionally, we just chose those events where we have the possibility to interact with our most important stakeholder groups in the best way possible. We are in direct contact with our customers frequently anyway, but it is really important for us to use platforms, where we can discuss current GSM-R topics with our stakeholders in a broader context. Our goal is to permanently improve our service according to our customers’ needs – selected international industry showplaces focusing on railway technology help us with this target. Our modern and innovative exhibition spaces normally give an excellent impression of the latest Kapsch CarrierCom solutions and references. Traditionally, we highlight not only solutions, but also concrete success stories from some of the largest GSM-R railway operators in selected markets.

Over recent months, Kapsch CarrierCom has won contracts in Poland, Spain, Austria and the UK. But what other countries/regions is the company keen to expand into?

Kapsch CarrierCom, previously regionally focused on Central and Southeastern Europe, is now one of the key players in the international GSM-R market. As of yet, the company was active in nine Central and Eastern European countries, but now Kapsch CarrierCom has subsidiaries and/or offices in 23 countries worldwide. This shows our now global business focus – we are open for contracts in all regions of the world. The GSM-R business is among the most future-oriented sectors. Several tenders, for example in Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Israel, Portugal and Spain have already been started or are in the pipeline. Kapsch CarrierCom will take part in those tenders and is ready to prove its number one position in GSM-R, not only in total numbers of tracks equipped, but also in terms of reliability and quality of our services.

What is Kapsch CarrierCom’s vision for the future and how will the company ensure it remains the global market leader?

While GSM-R is set to remain Kapsch’s primary focus, we will not rest when it comes to developing new technology. Kapsch will continue to develop and enhance GSM-R technology in the future, and this includes future radio technologies when they become available and applicable to railway needs, whatever they will be. As the number one GSM-R supplier worldwide, Kapsch CarrierCom is playing a key role in driving the evolution of the GSM-R technology and as such is a key contributor to the standardisation group EIRENE. Kapsch is also driving the development of operational applications through e.g. ETSI TC-RT, GSM-R IG, UIC and ERA. For GSM-R, in addition to the further development of core and access solutions, the emphasis will be on applications. These applications will be offered as end-to-end solutions to the broad railway customer base. This will lead to a further expansion of our global GSM-R market leadership.

Michel Clement has been President of Kapsch CarrierCom France and Vice President of GSM-R Global since April 2010. From 1998 to March 2010, Mr. Clement held many positions within Nortel, finishing as President of South Europe, Middle East & Africa.

www.kapschcarrier.com