Huge investment in new coastguard radio network
The coastguard is investing over £170 million in a new emergency radio network that will be of great benefit to saving lives around the Caithness coast.
The new network will be built and maintained by Telent Technology Services Ltd and is a significant investment in telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas.
The existing network will be replaced with a modern and resilient fibre-based hybrid network, that will provide increased reliability, bandwidth and security.
The new network will ensure Her Majesty's Coastguard (HMC) can continue to:
• Communicate with ships in UK waters to advise on navigation hazards or receive distress alerts.
• Track shipping through ships’ automatic identification systems, which presents a very significant national security risk.

• Launch and direct the hundreds of charitably funded lifeboats that save lives.
• Communicate with HMC helicopters, fixed wing planes, and emergency tug which save lives and protect the marine environment.
Commercial and programmes director, Damien Oliver, is the senior responsible officer for this programme and said: “This is a vitally important investment in coastguard infrastructure through the construction of a new national radio network, without which HMC simply could not fulfil its role in protecting life on the coast and in our waters into the future.
"This new network will replace the increasingly difficult to maintain analogue system in place today. It will also provide fibre connectivity to the very rural areas in which the majority of our 155 remote radio sites are located.”
The programme will replace old existing copper telephone wiring with modern fibre-based technology to each of the HMC 155 remote radio sites, as well as adding new connection points to increase resilience and diversity which will in turn improve reliability.
A future benefit of the programme will see remote towns and villages in the proximity of the network being able to utilise the new fibre infrastructure to access improved technology services from a broad base of suppliers.