Last Friday, Julia Lopez MP visited Harold Wood firm, Xtera, which provides the cutting-edge subsea cables that pass data for the internet beneath the world’s oceans. The MP’s team have been helping the Havering company with its export work and Mrs Lopez was keen to visit the business to understand more about their products and plans to grow, providing local engineering and technology jobs for Havering residents.
Xtera is one of only five companies in the world - and the only UK company - that is capable of designing and manufacturing the highly sophisticated equipment needed to transmit huge volumes of data across vast distances, in the harshest of conditions.
During the visit, Hornchurch & Upminster MP, Mrs Lopez, learned more about the leading research and development the company is doing in Harold Wood to provide better connectivity across the globe.
During her time as a Member of Parliament, Mrs Lopez’s office has provided casework assistance to the business by engaging the Department for Business & Trade on key export projects, and Mrs Lopez had been invited to see the firm’s work for herself at their base on the Bates trading estate in Harold Wood - an area packed full of brilliant entrepreneurs.
Speaking after her visit, Julia said:
The diversity of businesses across Hornchurch & Upminster never fails to amaze me, and I am sure many residents are not aware that on a quiet trading estate in Harold Wood is the only UK company producing the highly specialised subsea cables across which the world’s internet is carried.
It was fascinating to hear about all the amazing research and development that Xtera are pioneering right here in Havering, and I am proud that they have chosen the UK to do that work.
This is yet another example of a world-leading company who call North East London and the Thames Estuary home, bringing with them high-skilled jobs to our local area.
Leigh Frame, Chief Operating Officer at Xtera, added:
We’d like to thank Julia for visiting Xtera to hear more about the pioneering research and development work we’re doing here in Harold Wood. Xtera is a world leader in subsea cable technology and our site in Harold Wood is a vital part of our overall operation.
Julia’s office have been very helpful when we’ve needed support on some of our projects and it has been a pleasure to work with her as our local Member of Parliament.
Xtera was founded in 2004 in Harold Wood because the founders wanted to have proximity to the South East region’s telecommunications hubs, with Harlow as the birthplace of fibreoptic technology and Chelmsford the town where famous telecoms firm, Marconi, was first established in the UK. Over the last few years, the company has worked on various international projects such as connecting the UK to Norway and Florida to Puerto Rico.
Find out more about Xtera here.
