Sunday 28 August 2011

Nortel Networks - Harlow - Aug 2011


Nortel acquired the Harlow laboratories, originally Standard Telecommunications Laboratories, in 1991 and continued to use the site for research and development in wireless telecommunication technologies. It was the site of Charles Kao's research in fibre optic communications - Charles Kao was known as "The Godfather of Broadband" and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009. 



The inventions and technology invented by Nortel include

1882 manufactures the first telephone switchboard

1922 Invented the vacuum repeater tube without which, long distance telephone calls would not have been possible

2001 Installing the world's first commercial 3G wireless network
 

The Queen visits Nortel Harlow in 1971

Nortel started shedding jobs in 2002 and have now moved out of town.

Half of this massive site is now taken over by various companies that lease floorspace but a huge chunk of it sits derelict