The prosperity of Leeds’ economy has been well documented in recent years. We’ve got a thriving manufacturing sector, a world class banking district and we’re home to some of the UK’s biggest businesses. Indeed, Leeds has economy that’s bigger than nine European counties, growing by over 40% in the last decade. That growth has been fuelled by a number of factors, but none more than a strong digital infrastructure.
Time, however, waits for no cable and as the years have worn on Leeds’ digital infrastructure had fallen behind the pace somewhat. It’s largely run on ADSL 2+ and Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC), which is far from best in class. Those have been the two options offered to small and medium sized businesses, however both featured limited bandwidth. More expensive options included Line of Sight Broadband or Fixed Wireless Broadband, but they too had their downsides like a required line of sight to the satellite.
Now, Leeds has seen the rollout of the pure fibre network, which offers an essential resource to the city by way of fast, scalable and easily accessed high-speed broadband. But how is this going to boost our economy?
It will support growing and existing tech businesses.
Leeds is known for a lot of things, but it has yet to crack the code required to become a hub of digital innovation. Sky are opening a new digital home here, but for smaller enterprises, we’ve simply not done enough. With scalable gigabit speed broadband, young, bandwidth hungry technology businesses can continue to grow without having to leave the city.
This state of the art pure fibre network will mean that the city is future-proofed and can offer businesses the best connectivity services of anywhere in the country, ensuring that Leeds’ digital and tech sectors are supported for the decades ahead.
Existing sectors will benefit too.
Banking has become increasingly high-tech over the last decade, with trades now taking place in milliseconds in order to better extract profits from the market. With a strong digital infrastructure, banking in Leeds can continue to contribute to the local economy. That’s not all though, because the legal, financial and FinTech sectors will all see the benefit of this rollout.
All businesses will benefit from ultra-fast broadband as they make use of new ways of working like telecommuting and making cloud storage options both cheaper and more viable for their businesses.
It’s going to be a huge boost to the local economy.
Big things are coming for Leeds in the near future. With HS3 due to connect the core cities and a new shopping complex to increase tourist traffic, the economy is safeguarded for years to come. High speed internet, however, is suggested to contribute significant growth to the Leeds’ economy, with some predictions suggesting it’ll be boosted by 30% by 2021, helping Leeds to be worth £2 billion annually.
Brought to you by Walsh Taylor, Leeds Insolvency Practitioners