A few weeks ago, we spoke with a financial institution racing to stitch together a backup timing system. They were spooked by outages, GNSS jamming incidents were on the rise and their compliance team was on edge about meeting MiFID II and NIS2 requirements. So they were piecing together parts from different vendors, hoping the system would hold if the satellite signal ever dropped.

And we understand the concern. Fortunately, the resilient timing capabilities many organisations are now trying to build already exist.

You don’t need to build what already exists

At Adtran Oscilloquartz, we’ve spent years developing and deploying the technologies these teams are now scrambling to assemble – from optical cesium to Satellite Time and Location (STL) and White Rabbit. Our optical cesium clocks are field-deployed today, delivering sub-100ns accuracy and more than 100 days of holdover without GNSS. Together, these technologies offer resilient, production-ready alternatives for a GNSS-denied world – and support compliance with regulations like NIS2.

You don’t need to be a survivalist, stockpiling parts and hoping for the best. You don’t need to build your own. You just need to know it’s already out there – production-ready, proven and simple to deploy.

The language gets in the way

Most people aren’t looking for an enhanced primary reference time clock (ePRTC). They’re looking for a way to stay operational when GNSS goes down.

Terms like ePRTC make perfect sense to those of us in telecom. But for teams in finance, defence or energy, they can obscure more than they clarify. That’s why we lead with outcomes, not acronyms.

Think of it like a generator for time. When the grid goes down, your generator kicks in. Our holdover clocks do the same for timing – maintaining accuracy for weeks, even months, with no satellite signal.

Can your timing infrastructure hold ±100ns for 14, 40, 55 or even 100+ days without satellite? Can it recover quickly? Can it detect and mitigate jamming and spoofing? That’s the conversation that matters.

You don’t need to build your own. You just need a solution that works.

And the good news is, you don’t have to rip everything out and start again. Our platforms are built to integrate with what’s already there – whether that’s PTP, NTP, SyncE or something else. We support everything from sovereign time scale generation to GNSS-backup-as-a-service (GBaaS), helping organizations modernize and secure their timing infrastructure without unnecessary disruption.

That includes our latest optical cesium clocks – the OSA 3200 SP and OSA 3250 ePRC – engineered for long holdover, low maintenance and a 10-year lifespan. With compact form factors and a lower price point, they bring secure, high-precision timing to a wider range of sectors than ever before.

This isn’t a pilot. It’s happening.

Across critical infrastructure, organizations are deploying these solutions now. In the US, our systems form part of an L3 Harris upgrade for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), enhancing national aviation resilience. Similar projects are underway with energy providers, financial exchanges and government networks worldwide. These aren’t trials; they’re live deployments delivering real-world resilience today.

Most organizations don’t want to know how every component works. They just want to know: Will it keep us running if GNSS goes down? Will we stay compliant? Can we avoid disruption?

The answer is yes. Whether you’re facing regulatory deadlines, cybersecurity risks or degraded satellite signals, we can help you drop in what you need today – and scale out over time.

You don’t need to build your own. You just need a solution that works.

Let’s stop reinventing secure time – and start deploying it.