Innovation and Technology
Wilkes County has multiple high speed broadband connection options. Wide availability of fiber has a correlation with fast broadband Internet and increased bandwidth. Unsurprisingly, Wilkes County's average speeds outperform the state weighted average by 14.08%. Any individual, entrepreneur or company can come to Wilkes County and connect with businesses anywhere in the world due to the fiber optic network that is accessible throughout the county. This is allowing remote access and bringing innovation to our rural county such as cybersecurity.
NC Tech Paths
Live. Train. Remain.
As of 2021, Northwest NC is building a new generation of tech talent. Nestled in the foothills and high country of the Blue Ridge Mountains, NC Tech Paths is blazing a trail to the digital economy, leveraging world-class broadband, natural beauty, and burgeoning talent. Their approach to bridging the rural-urban divide in the digital economy requires optimizing Talent, Employers, Infrastructure, and Entrepreneurship. Northwest NC is the premium choice for employers to target in building their tech workforce of the future due to its World-Class Broadband, Versatile Talent, Labor Shed, and Quality of Life.
InfusionPoints a strategy and technology security consulting firm that is comprised of experienced security professionals who build secure and compliant business solutions to protect consumer, employee, and partner information. InfusionPoints takes an independent approach to infuse security and privacy into the people, processes and technologies of business solutions. The foundation for infusing security extends beyond simply providing traditional technology solutions; it also includes details related to the people who maintain, administer, and use the business solutions and the processes that guide their activities.
Since 1951, when Wilkes Telephone Membership Corporation, now doing business as Wilkes Communications, began providing communication services to Wilkes County, the company has evolved into a much larger communications company offering traditional home and business telephone, high speed internet, digital TV over a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network, as well as safety and security systems with Wilkes Security. River Street Networks, a subsidiary of Wilkes Telephone Membership Corporation, caters to customers outside of Wilkes County; and River Street Productions is a full in-house video production studio.
Founded in 1975 in Wilkesboro, InterFlex Group is a global flexible packaging supplier supporting recognized brands in North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. The company offers a range of customized packaging solutions across a product portfolio that includes surface print and laminate roll stocks, pouches, thin gauge shrink and stretch films, multi-layer barrier laminate structures, and pre-formed specialty bags. The company serves poultry and meat, bakery, confectionery, snack foods, pet products, health and beauty, child resistant, and lawn and garden markets.