ALONGSIDE rate rebates and small business grants, a strong enterprising culture has inspired businesses across Northampton and helped it to flourish. This approach is obviously working, just last year the town was named the best place for business start-ups outside of London in the Cities Outlook report.
However, with neighbouring centres like Leicester and Luton also experiencing high levels of business start-up activity, Northampton will need to work harder to maintain its lead, enticing businesses to call Northampton home.
We have invested in connecting Northampton to the rest of the UK. There’s a new rail station with links that allow us to get to London in under an hour and to Milton Keynes in under half an hour, a new bus station to replace the eyesore that was Greyfriars Station, which now has long-distance links around the country, and not forgetting M1 improvements and A45 links being developed. However, the town now needs to turn its attention to a different type of connectivity if it is to maintain its position of strength. We can travel geographically ultra-fast, but can our data do the same?
New investment in digital infrastructure and services is essential for towns and cities to remain productive, competitive and attractive to inward investment on both the national and global stage. The UK currently sits at 37th in the world’s connectivity league table. Considering the UK’s technology industry is larger than the rest of Europe combined and with Theresa May boasting to the world that the technology industry is a ‘Great British Success story’ we really need to make sure the UK’s connectivity and infrastructure is at the highest standard, to support and leverage this success.
dbfb brought the ultra-fast gigabit revolution to Northampton in 2016, transforming connectivity across the town. Since then, businesses have experienced the world’s fastest internet speeds, up to 100 times faster than the UK’s average. This has provided a multitude of benefits; future-proofing bandwidth requirements, increased reliability and enabling businesses to fully embrace new technologies such as cloud based systems.
The town has strong ambitions to be a leading area for innovation, business growth and green technologies in the UK. Ultra-fast full fibre technology will only strengthen this proposition and provide businesses across Northampton with a competitive edge that will boost the town’s start-up haven status. The St. James area is about to be revolutionised with companies of all sizes embracing ultra-fast speeds including Northampton Saints, Northampton Football Club and Cosworth, to name a few. Other areas that already have this network in the ground and available now are Brackmills, Kings Heath, Kingsthorpe, Lodge Farm, Moulton Park, Queens Park, Nene Valley, Round Spinney, Spencer and Weedon Road.
For more information about ultra-fast gigabit internet speeds, visit https://www.dbfb.co.uk/cityfibre/
