BT has lost the job of looking after the time signal used to set Britain's clocks, after the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) awarded the contract for the service to VT Communications. 

The responsibility for the highly accurate time signal will be passed to the VT Communications site at Anthorn in Cumbria in 2007, ending the 80-year transmission of the time from Rugby.

The signal's name will therefore be changed from 'The time from Rugby' to 'The time from NPL'.

"Maintaining accurate time is essential in keeping the modern world working, " said NPL managing director Steve McQuillan.

"Most people only need time to be accurate to within a few seconds or even minutes, but global navigation systems, the internet, email, television, the power industry, transport and financial systems depend on very accurate time to operate."

The switchover will take place following a three-month test period at the beginning of next year, and the final transfer from Rugby to Anthorn will take place at the end of March 2007.

The time signal is accurate to within one millisecond of Universal Time and the signal's transmission is linked to NPL's atomic clocks at Teddington in south west London.

The service supports a wide range of clients, including emergency 999 services, train companies, cash machines and mobile phone billing systems.