Bullet Train Upgrade Brings 5G Windows, Noise-Cancelling Cabins To Japan (theregister.com)
- Reference: 0181725146
- News link: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/26/04/16/071239/bullet-train-upgrade-brings-5g-windows-noise-cancelling-cabins-to-japan
- Source link: https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/16/jr_central_shinkansen_tech/
> Rail operator JR Central announced the new tech late last month and will initially deploy a couple of the suites on six trains. The carrier explained that the antennas come from a Japanese company called AGC that weaves microscopic wires through glass to form an antenna. JR Central will connect the windows to an on-train Wi-Fi router.
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> AGC says rival tech relies on 5G signals reaching a train and then bouncing around inside before reaching the Wi-Fi unit. The company says antennas woven into train windows maintain line of sight to nearby 5G base stations. That matters because JR Central's Shinkansen can achieve speeds of up to 285 km/h, which means they speed past cellular network base stations so quickly that it's frequently necessary to reconnect to another radio. AGC says keeping a line of sight connection means its antennas allow increased 5G signal strength, so Wi-Fi service on board trains should be more stable and speedy.
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> The sound-deadening kit JR Central will deploy is called Personalized Sound Zone (PSZ) and comes from Japan's tech giant NTT. The tech uses the same principles applied to noise-cancelling headphones -- determine the waveform of sound and project an inversion of that waveform that cancels out ambient noise.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/16/jr_central_shinkansen_tech/
never enough... (Score:1, Offtopic)
It seems there's just never enough opportunity to separate the "elite" from the rest of us slobs, so let's bring back discrimination on public transit.
Ms. Parks would be soooooo pleased.
I hope 5G Windows is better than Windows 11 (Score:3, Funny)
Though they should really upgrade to 5G linux.
Re: (Score:3)
I hope it is a decent upgrade, because I have to say that Shinkansen wifi is pretty terrible. It's slow and frequently drops out. It's bad enough that I don't bother with it and use my phone's own cellular connection.
It's a plus (Score:3)
but it’s worth noting that economy class on Japanese Shinkansen trains is more spacious and comfortable than most business-class train seats in other countries.
Re:It's a plus (Score:4, Informative)
Worth noting also that it is ludicrously cheap. Tokyo to Hiroshima on a Shinkansen costs around $100 and is 20% further than London to Edenborough which costs $129EUR (30% more expensive), takes 250% as long, and is 1000% more shit.
Re: (Score:2)
> Worth noting also that it is ludicrously cheap.
Actually, the Shinkansen is known to be expensive for the Japanese. But the yen is currently very low against US and European currencies, and coming from abroad it appears to be cheap.
DeutschBahn (Score:2)
Meanwhile on DeutschBahn you are lucky if the train shows up at all and if the heating and a/c are working.
DB has been officially tuning the statistics for years, despite all that effort in faking the numbers, the stats look worse than ever.
Re: (Score:3)
Meanwhile in Japan: [1]https://www.bbc.com/news/world... [bbc.com] apologies for running 20 seconds early.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42009839
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Ugh, yeah. My grandparents lived in Germany in the early 40s and told me stories about having to take the train to some sort of camp. Really terrible experience. Would not recommend.
Re: (Score:2)
Took a trip from Salzburg to Munich last year, and for a while I only had 2G service. Was surprised that it was even still a thing there.
AGC page with more info (Score:2)
AGC used to be called Asahi Glass and has been one of the world leaders in functionality glass for a long time and though I don’t know a ton about them have admired their innovations.They’ve been making glass antennas of one kind or another since at least 2022 according to Google. Here is a page I found that discusses this product. [1]https://www.agc-automotive.com... [agc-automotive.com]
[1] https://www.agc-automotive.com/news/agcs-transparent-5g-glass-antenna-adopted-for-the-premium-class-seat-dedicated-wi-fi-service-on-the-tokaido-shinkansen-n700s
Wondering if .. (Score:2)
> they speed past cellular network base stations so quickly that it's frequently necessary to reconnect to another radio.
.. anyone has considered having the 5G routers at the head end of the train initiate contact with upcoming base stations on behalf of the cars behind them.
Remarkably quite already (Score:2, Interesting)
Riding on a bullettrain was one of the most disappointing experiences during my visit to Japan 20 years ago.
Racing with +260 km/h down the track but it was so damn quiet as if you were in a train going 20 km/h.
Re:Remarkably quite already (Score:4, Interesting)
This is actually tech that is built into the seat headrest, and supposed to be able to block sounds from the same room. So presumably it is not trying to quieten the already very quiet trains, but rather the other passengers.
Re: (Score:2)
I rode on the Thalys train in France a few years ago. Looking out the window I could tell we were going pretty fast but it was so smooth I guessed maybe 160 kph. Turned on GPS and discovered how wrong I was. It was actually 300 kph.