VT Communications was a company that was a part of

VT Group VTG (formerly VT Group) is a privately held United States defense and services company, with its origins in a former British shipbuilding group, previously known as Vosper Thornycroft. The British part of VTG was integrated into Babcock Interna ...

plc. VT Communications was essentially formed as a result of the privatization of the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

transmitter sites. It was initially named Merlin Communications, then, after acquisition by VT, VT Merlin Communications. It provided transmission services to over 20 different customers from four main sites in the United Kingdom and many others in the rest of the world. In 2003, the VT Communications was awarded a £228m

public private partnership In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichke ...

contract to operate the Defence High Frequency Communications Service for a period of fifteen years on behalf of the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

. It was based at the Blue Fin Building on London's South Bank, which hosted the company's broadcast Media Management Centre and where it formed part of

Babcock International Group Babcock International Group plc is a British aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company based in London, England. It specialises in managing complex assets and infrastructure. Although the company has civil contracts, its main b ...

, after its acquisition on 8 July 2010.Babcock Acquisition
/ref>

National Physical Laboratory time signal

Starting in 1950, the National Physical Laboratory time signal, the UK's national time reference, was broadcast on 60 kHz from the MSF transmitter at

Rugby radio station __NOTOC__ Rugby Radio Station was a large British government radio transmission facility just east of the Hillmorton area of the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. The site straddled the A5 trunk road, with most of it in Warwickshire, and ...

by BT Communications, which was under licence from the NPL. When that contract expired, VT Communications was awarded the new licence and, following successful testing in early 2007, took over broadcasting the signal from its new location at Anthorn radio station. The formal inauguration of the new facility took place on 1 April 2007, when the signal from Rugby was permanently switched off, and the name of the service was then changed to "The Time from NPL."

Main transmission sites in the UK

Woofferton Woofferton is a village to the south of Ludlow, in Shropshire, England. It is one of Shropshire's most southerly villages and lies on the border with Herefordshire. It is part of the Civil parishes in England, civil parish of Richard's Castle ...

* Rampisham * Skelton *

Orfordness Orford Ness is a cuspate foreland spit (landform), shingle spit on the Suffolk coast in Great Britain, linked to the mainland at Aldeburgh and stretching along the coast to Orford, Suffolk, Orford and down to North Weir Point, opposite Shingle ...

Anthorn Anthorn (pronounced ) is a village in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it is situated on the south side of the Solway Firth, on the Wampool estuary, about west of Carlisle. It is the location of the Anthorn radio station, bro ...

References

External links

VT Group plc
{{Telecommunications industry in the United Kingdom BBC World Service Defunct telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom