Britain spends £180M to work out what time it is
(2026/03/09)
- Reference: 1773052207
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/03/09/uk_180m_distributed_time/
- Source link:
The British government is to pour £180 million into ensuring the UK keeps up with the times.
Don't worry, it's not another cringeworthy effort to get down with the kids by putting Keir Starmer on TikTok. Rather, DSIT is funneling the cash toward the National Physical Laboratory's (NPL) National Timing Centre (NTC) to continue building out "the UK's first nationally distributed timing infrastructure."
Measure for measure: We visit the most applied-physicist-rich building in the UK [1]READ MORE
That in turn will ensure "an assured and trusted timekeeping source" to underpin the rollout of new technologies that require "precise and synchronized time."
These include the likes of 5G/6G applications, smart cities, and connected autonomous vehicles, according to a statement on the investment.
Keeping those uncrewed buses running on time will be an atomic clock network deployed across the UK "to create a resilient time source that is kept accurate using state-of-the-art cesium clocks; so accurate that it would take 160 million years for them to drift by just one second."
[2]
Losing track of time via "an outage of satellite-based positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services" could cost the UK more than £1.4 billion in just 24 hours, the NPL reckons. Of course, a stray leaf or errant goose has similar potential to cause chaos across the UK's transport system.
[3]
[4]
The statement adds: "This resilient time source will become our national time scale, UTC (NPL)."
The signals will be shared over fiber and satellites from two dedicated sites, "providing the UK with terrestrial time to complement satellite timing signals."
[5]NIST contemplated pulling the pin on NTP servers after blackout caused atomic clock drift
[6]Time Lords decree: No leap second needed in 2024
[7]US reckons it's about time the Moon had its own time zone
[8]It's about time! NASA's orbital atomic clock a boon for deep space navigation – if they can get it working for long enough
The NTC will also invest in "both the UK supply chain for essential timing components, and the vital timing skills the NTC needs." Presumably we're talking more than the ability to say: "Well, the big hand's pointing at…"
It's not just the NPL that is working on its timing. MIT boffins have recently developed a technique to tune out quantum noise, making atomic clocks – typically based on the vibrations of cesium atoms – even more accurate.
[9]
Though some physicists reckon atomic is not enough – we need to go full [10]nuclear , rather than messing around with the whole atom, with thorium and strontium timepieces under consideration.
As for what your average atomic clock actually looks like? Well, you could do worse than look at the setup at Jodrell Bank, as detailed in our [11]Geek's Guide to the venerable observatory . OK, that was 13 years ago now, but let's face it, time is kind of relative. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/12/geeks_guide_npl/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aa6oUOI0TcvP7AoCm79_VQAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aa6oUOI0TcvP7AoCm79_VQAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aa6oUOI0TcvP7AoCm79_VQAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/21/nist_ntp_outage_warning/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/05/iers_decrees_no_leap_second/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/03/coordinated_lunar_time/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/01/nasa_atomic_space_clock/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aa6oUOI0TcvP7AoCm79_VQAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/04/giant_step_in_nuclear_clock/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2013/03/25/geeks_guide_jodrell_bank/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Don't worry, it's not another cringeworthy effort to get down with the kids by putting Keir Starmer on TikTok. Rather, DSIT is funneling the cash toward the National Physical Laboratory's (NPL) National Timing Centre (NTC) to continue building out "the UK's first nationally distributed timing infrastructure."
Measure for measure: We visit the most applied-physicist-rich building in the UK [1]READ MORE
That in turn will ensure "an assured and trusted timekeeping source" to underpin the rollout of new technologies that require "precise and synchronized time."
These include the likes of 5G/6G applications, smart cities, and connected autonomous vehicles, according to a statement on the investment.
Keeping those uncrewed buses running on time will be an atomic clock network deployed across the UK "to create a resilient time source that is kept accurate using state-of-the-art cesium clocks; so accurate that it would take 160 million years for them to drift by just one second."
[2]
Losing track of time via "an outage of satellite-based positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services" could cost the UK more than £1.4 billion in just 24 hours, the NPL reckons. Of course, a stray leaf or errant goose has similar potential to cause chaos across the UK's transport system.
[3]
[4]
The statement adds: "This resilient time source will become our national time scale, UTC (NPL)."
The signals will be shared over fiber and satellites from two dedicated sites, "providing the UK with terrestrial time to complement satellite timing signals."
[5]NIST contemplated pulling the pin on NTP servers after blackout caused atomic clock drift
[6]Time Lords decree: No leap second needed in 2024
[7]US reckons it's about time the Moon had its own time zone
[8]It's about time! NASA's orbital atomic clock a boon for deep space navigation – if they can get it working for long enough
The NTC will also invest in "both the UK supply chain for essential timing components, and the vital timing skills the NTC needs." Presumably we're talking more than the ability to say: "Well, the big hand's pointing at…"
It's not just the NPL that is working on its timing. MIT boffins have recently developed a technique to tune out quantum noise, making atomic clocks – typically based on the vibrations of cesium atoms – even more accurate.
[9]
Though some physicists reckon atomic is not enough – we need to go full [10]nuclear , rather than messing around with the whole atom, with thorium and strontium timepieces under consideration.
As for what your average atomic clock actually looks like? Well, you could do worse than look at the setup at Jodrell Bank, as detailed in our [11]Geek's Guide to the venerable observatory . OK, that was 13 years ago now, but let's face it, time is kind of relative. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2014/06/12/geeks_guide_npl/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aa6oUOI0TcvP7AoCm79_VQAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aa6oUOI0TcvP7AoCm79_VQAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aa6oUOI0TcvP7AoCm79_VQAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/21/nist_ntp_outage_warning/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/05/iers_decrees_no_leap_second/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/03/coordinated_lunar_time/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/01/nasa_atomic_space_clock/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aa6oUOI0TcvP7AoCm79_VQAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/04/giant_step_in_nuclear_clock/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2013/03/25/geeks_guide_jodrell_bank/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
160 million years….
FirstTangoInParis
For those living in the sticks, this is a perfectly normal interval between busses.
What is this cesium of which you speak?
I'm familiar with caesium though.