SBB experiments with wifi on trains with Starlink: connection on the Rome-Milan high-speed train

Ferrovie dello Stato has started a few weeks' trial with 'two subjects to make it possible to connect on trains during the entire high-speed section. And one of the two subjects is Starlink'. It was the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, who made the news official, following press rumours. At the Festival dell'Economia in Trento, the event organised by the 24 Ore Group and Trentino Marketing on behalf of the Autonomous Province, the transport minister, during an interview, recalled that one of the first requests to the top management, old and new, of Ferrovie dello Stato, was to 'make it possible to connect the entire high-speed line between Milan and Rome'. And on this dossier, it is 'true that the railways have chosen two subjects, with whom it is experimenting with satellite coverage, and one of the two is Starlink, since it is one of the few able to guarantee this service,' Salvini points out.

More specifically, the system, as reported by the newspaper La Stampa, consists of placing the famous Starlink 'tablet' on the roofs of carriages and remote stations, taking the satellite signal and translating it into wifi connectivity. On the subject, the Minister of Transport explained that there is every interest in 'guaranteeing those travelling on high-speed lines a connection that does not exist today', and that it will be up to Ferrovie dello Stato to decide, in complete autonomy. Should the 'experiment be successful, I will be the first supporter of an agreement with Starlink,' Salvini stressed.

For its part, the group, explain FS sources contacted by ANSA, is investing in projects to 'enhance connectivity on board trains and aims to improve the overall travel experience for passengers'. Among the suppliers to whom the group entrusts the on-board train wifi service is the company Icomera, which has integrated Starlink into its systems. Possible experiments that could also involve Starlink satellites for group company projects are being 'evaluated and analysed', they add. The Starlink card had also circulated in recent months on the communications link front. A hypothesis that was then dropped after a back-and-forth meeting between the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, and Andrea Stroppa, Elon Musk's Italian representative.

After the announcement of the experiment for wifi connection on trains, there is no shortage of controversy from the opposition. For Green Party leader Bonelli, the deputy prime minister is turning Italy into an American technological colony. Democratic Party senators Lorenzo Basso and Antonio Nicita believe that Salvini 'is thinking of making a gift to Starlink, Elon Musk's company. With a joke, one could say that the real nail in the coffin on the trains that the minister spoke about in the courtroom was, in fact, Musk'. But from the stage of Trento's Teatro Sociale, the transport minister says he has read the 'usual polemics of the PD and I would like to point out that if Musk is waiting for Salvini to give him gifts, then he is in a bad way'.