A £10 million (€12.7 million) contract to provide a voice and paging network for all lifeboat stations on the Irish and British coastlines has been secured by NTL, the firm behind Cablelink.

NTL will design and build a unified system for emergency call-out of lifeboat crews which will replace a variety of installations in use at the 223 rescue stations run by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) around the two coastlines. Many stations still also fire the reliable maroon or rocket, despite an attempt by the institution to phase this out some years ago.

Mr Michael Vlasto, RNLI chief of operations, hoped the system would bring "speed and reliability" to the institution's communications network.

"Emergency call-out is fundamental to our operations, and it is essential that our volunteer crew members have complete confidence in any system provided."

NTL has more than 1,400 transmission sites and service centres in Britain and Ireland.