One of the biggest names in high-frequency trading wants to erect a communications tower in rural Kent as high as The Shard as it steps up the millisecond arms race against rivals.

Vigilant Global, a Canadian telecommunications company owned by the Chicago-based HFT firm DRW Trading, submitted plans in August 2015 to construct a communications tower of 320 meters or taller in Richborough, near the southern coast of England and some 80 miles from London, according to an application submitted to Dover District Council.