Fifty years ago this month, BT's Adastral Park was officially opened by the late Queen.
It was a pivotal moment - and meant that the quiet rural county of Suffolk would be thrust to the forefront of a communications revolution that continues to this day.
The spacious, disused airfield at Martlesham, near Ipswich, was seen as the ideal home for a group of Post Office boffins who would create cutting-edge research laboratories.
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Their pioneering work would herald a new era in communications - not only in the UK but around the world.
This includes the development of glass fibre to replace copper wiring which has radically speeded up the communications network.
The world’s first mobile data call using GPRS was a result of research at the park.
But as former BT boss Tom Rowbotham, now 85, explains it could all have been very different.
He was among invited guests at a celebration hosted by Adastral Park on Thursday (October 20) to mark the 50th anniversary.
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His first trip to Martlesham was in 1966 as one of a group of young researchers. The crack team from Dollis Hill Post Office Research Station in London - where the world-changing Colossus computer was born - was checking out various sites around the UK.
"They wanted to do experiments and you needed lots of space," explains Tom.
The research members - Tom included - actually preferred Hastings, but in the end, Martlesham was chosen.
"Two years later the company decided to move everyone at Dollis here and expanded," he says.
So while the official launch wouldn't happen until November 21, 1975 - when teams in Bristol, London and South Wales were brought together on the one site - the labs were emerging from 1968 onwards.
The population was in the thousands, recalls the retired researcher, who remained in Suffolk and lives in Little Glemham, near Saxmundham.
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"We all wanted to go to Hastings, then when we came here everyone loved it," he recalls.
The BT veteran - who is originally from Belfast and has three degrees including a PhD from Nottingham University - ran the first division for optical fibre in the early 1980s. He also worked on the first transatlantic fibre cable in 1988.
The site remains true to its roots. It holds 5,400 patents worldwide and continues to develop new communications products.
It was already working in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) back in the 1990s.
Today - as its chief security and networks officer Howard Watson explains - quantum computing is the new frontier.
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The technology - which will make computing much faster - is not far off. With it will come cyber security problems to be solved as encryption codes which today can keep information securely are broken.
This is an area which BT researchers at Adastral are grappling with now in anticipation the communications challenges around the corner.
In 2019, a quantum networking link was established between Adastral and Cambridge University.
"These are just a few of the amazing breakthroughs that have come from this park," says Howard.
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The park has been a "beacon of progress" - as well as a major employer in the region, he adds. It has a DigiTech Centre, a Space Enterprise Lab and is in the middle of building a Quantum Optics Discovery Lab.
"It has been at the heart of BT's heritage and provided a launchpad for the future," he says. Its aim is to build the "most trusted" digital network.
Adastral Park managing director Peter Bell says fibreoptic cable technology - which came out of the park - has "changed the face not just of the UK but the world".
"The theory was there but it was how you make the theory into reality," he says.
"Thirty-two years ago internet didn't exist except for university and copper technology was developed here," he says.
"Now we are replacing that with fibre - it reaches over 20m customers now."
Peter - who has lived in Suffolk for 32 years - started at the site in 1993.
"I look after the site and it's with absolute pride because I think it's a real gem for Suffolk. Not only has it brought a huge amount to the local economy, but it's recognised worldwide for its research capabilities.
Managing director for research and networks strategy Gabriela Styf Sjoman explains that they work in the area of applied research. Their aim is to benefit society.
"We don't compete with universities," she says. "We are here to solve a problem. The purpose is still the same - to research and innovate.
"It's extremely important to be at the forefront of these technologies."
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