Laser Light companies selects Dover for its next-generation network operation centre

Locate in Kent has announced that one of the world’s most innovative and visionary global optical services businesses, Laser Light Companies (“Laser Light”) has selected Dover in Kent for its new UK-based global network operation and development facility. Known as The HALO Centre, UK, this facility will be one of five planned, world-wide to serve as a critical element of Laser Light’ global data services platform. Laser Light’s next generation, software-defined platform – a converged network of networks – will comprise subsea cable, fibre, and all optical satellites. These will all operate as one, enabling Laser Light to revolutionise how data is originated, managed and consumed globally, regionally, and locally. Additional activities resident at the HALO Centre will be advanced laser systems development and operating analytics, driven through local and regional partnerships and through demonstrations.

Laser Light Holdings has its headquarters in Hamilton, Bermuda. Its UK subsidiary, Laser Light Global Ltd, will have an office in London, but its next-generation network operating centre is planned for the very south east of the UK, close to the famous White Cliffs of Dover.

Locate in Kent, the inward investment promotion agency for Kent and Medway has worked closely with the economic development team at Dover District Council and Laser Light to secure a suitable site, including TechFort at the Citadel in Dover. The new facility is expected to be approximately 15,000 square feet in size and to result in at least 80 new jobs being created over the next three years. Laser Light is also seeking partnerships with other UK Government agencies, particularly the Met Office, as well as local academic institutions interested in optical (laser) communications research, development, and employee training.

Bob Brumley – Group Chairman and CEO, Laser Light said: “We have big plans for our site in Kent. Our immediate priority is to get our ground networking Beta trial up and running, with real traffic between the Kent site and our other Beta sites world-wide, as soon as we can.

“We also expect to learn a lot about data origination/consumption patterns amongst communities in the UK and Europe, as well as our other Beta sites in Africa, Latin America, the US, and Australia. Our global search drew us to South East England and the Locate in Kent team demonstrated that Kent is the right location in the UK where we can achieve all of our goals.

“Each time my team visited and talked with the team from Locate in Kent, including most recently last month, we just became more and more convinced that this was the right decision to make. I’m delighted at the progress we are making, identifying a great site that will support our global ambitions.”

Simon Ryan, Investment Director, Locate in Kent, said: “We’re delighted to be part of the team that has secured such a future proofed business investment for the Kent and Medway region. We faced some stiff global competition, but at the end of the day, Kent’s access to global fibre, unencumbered air space and our partnership approach to achieving their success sealed the deal.

“We’ve been working closely with Bob and his UK team, supporting through its location validation, system development and finally their site selection. I’m convinced they could be Kent’s first privately held start-up company with a value of over $1 billion. There’s a lot more to come, but it’s fantastic to reach this stage at last.”

Cllr Kevin Mills, Leader of Dover District Council, said “Laser Light’s location choice in our area shows how successive investments in power and fibre in East Kent can act as a catalyst for blending our heritage assets with future proofed tech businesses.

“It’s also testament to the value of Locate in Kent, which is such an important catalyst for making projects like this happen in our region. We will continue to work closely with Laser Light to support their global expansion plans through employing skilled local people in our region for generations of to come.”

Laser Light is deploying a global elastic data platform, with over 200 micro data centres serving cloud-centric customers. These micro data centres will be integrated into a networking platform which will include a first to market all-optical satellite constellation.

Once launched this next-generation converged infrastructure will give firms like Google, Netflix, Meta as well as the FinTech industry in the City, the capability to deliver high-volume – 100Tbps – content anywhere in the world in partnership with any service provider, on any device, in milliseconds.

The company announced last year a partnership with Nokia using the communications giant’s optical and IP network solutions to support the creation of a single service Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered platform. This platform will ultimately deliver an on-demand high speed, high capacity, highly secure, low latency next generation network for customers.