Press release

ntl enables speedier lifeboat launches for the RNLI 

• £1.6 million contract with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)
• Delivering high-speed links between the RNLI headquarters in Poole and over 200 lifeboat stations and beach rescue centres 
• Supporting mission-critical communications for one of the UK’s largest charities

27 July 2004 – ntl’s business division, a leading provider of business communications services, has secured a contract to design and implement an advanced high-speed Wide Area Network (WAN) for the RNLI. ntl will connect over 200 lifeboat stations and seven beach rescue centres across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The contract is worth £1.6m over three years.

The high-speed WAN provided by ntl’s business division will replace the RNLI’s existing dial-up connections and deliver secure, reliable and cost-effective links between the organisation’s disparate sites. This will enable the charity to react to critical situations more rapidly and deploy lifeboats faster.

The ntl WAN solution utilises ntl's Broadband Power, IP Net and Ether Point to Point products and is designed to enhance the RNLI’s crew callout radiopaging system for mobilising lifeboats in an emergency. ntl’s Public Safety Group deployed and currently manages the bespoke, fully integrated Call Out and Communications System (COACS). ntl is a leading provider of comms to the public sector with extensive engineering and technical expertise and the new deal represents a significant extension to its partnership with the RNLI.

The high-speed connections delivered by the new network mean that Coastguard Rescue Co-ordination Centres will be able to send requests to RNLI lifeboat stations almost immediately, without waiting for a dial-up connection to be made and can then dispatch initial information about the casualty to the appropriate lifeboat station.

In addition to supporting the RNLI’s crew call-out system, the high-speed WAN can also be used for email, file transfer and potentially to enable long distance learning for RNLI volunteers. With stations across the UK and Republic of Ireland, many of which are in isolated coastal areas, the ability to train lifeboat volunteers ‘online’ will save money for the charity and time for the participants.

Chris Bartlett, Network & Telecoms Manager at the RNLI, commented, “ntl have a proven track record in delivering an effective solution to the RNLI whilst showing both an understanding of and a flexibility to meet our unusual requirements. These qualities continued to prevail throughout the tender process that lead to the award of this contract. The fact that ntl already provided our COACS system was an added advantage and should make the integration of the two systems that much easier.”

Tom Bennie, Managing Director of ntl’s business division, added, “ntl has a strong existing relationship with the RNLI and we look forward to extending this partnership to develop a state-of-the-art communications solution that meets all its requirements. The network is designed to be fully scalable, enabling the provision of additional connections so that as the RNLI grows, the network will evolve with it, providing support well into the future.”

ntl’s business division has designed the WAN solution in accordance with the RNLI’s specification to offer maximum reliability, with two diversely supplied high-speed circuits terminating at the Poole headquarters for additional resilience. The service will be fully-managed and offers a stringent SLA to guarantee the performance of the RNLI’s mission-critical communications system.