Who owns british telecom

BT: Volume of residential exchange line numbers annually in the UK BT: volume of business exchange line numbers annually in the UK Market share of telecoms operators in the UK , by broadband subscribers. UK operators: market share of residential fixed-line call volumes BT: Volume of exchange line numbers annually in the UK More interesting topics Related topics.

Mobile Communications. Mobile Broadband technology. Telecommunication services. Go to report. Contact Get in touch with us. We are happy to help. Vianny Gutierrez-Cruz. Sales Manager — Contact United States. Ziyan Zhang. Customer Relations — Contact Asia. Kisara Mizuno. Customer Success Manager — Contact Asia. Lodovica Biagi. The High Court subsequently decided that the telephone was a form of telegraph.

The merger was revoked, and telephone companies were required to be licensed by the telegraph monopoly holder, the Post Office.

The next stage in the process of squeezing out competition and establishing a state telephone monopoly was the building up of the Post Office's own system. In the Post Office completed its improved telephone network by taking over the trunk lines of National Telephone Company, the largest of its licensees, and started to set up its own local telephone exchanges.

It was then decided that more national licenses would be granted. National Telephone Company continued to operate a local service until its license expired in , but in the Post Office was granted a monopoly on the supply of telephone services throughout the United Kingdom. It took over all of National Telephone Company's exchanges and opened an automatic exchange in Epsom, south of London. Since several of the larger towns and cities, including Glasgow, Brighton, Swansea, Portsmouth, and Kingston upon Hull Hull , had each been operating an independent local telephone service, but their number gradually dwindled as they were bought out by National Telephone Company or the Post Office.

In only Hull was left. This former government department became a state public corporation under the Secretary of State for Industry. The telecommunications services remained in the Post Office but were divided from the postal services into Post Office Telecommunications. Three further events marked the telephone industry's move toward an environment of free competition.

First came the passage of the British Telecommunications Act, which took Post Office Telecommunications out of the Post Office, turning it into an autonomous, though still state-owned, body known as British Telecommunications Corporation or, more familiarly, British Telecom. Second was the Telecommunications Act, by which BT was privatized, the telecommunications market was further liberalized, and a regulatory body was set up. Third, the Duopoly Review in resulted in the government's decision to further increase telecommunications competition.

The government also decided to sell off its remaining shares in BT, although this decision was not influenced by the Duopoly Review. In July the British Telecommunications Act which separated telecommunications from the Post Office and set up a new state public corporation to supply them also gave the government powers to license competitors in the operation of the domestic telephone network.

As well as modifying the state company's statutory monopoly of the telephone network, this act took away its monopoly in the provision of telecommunication equipment, leaving it only with the right to supply and install a subscriber's first telephone.

The act not only opened the market to competition in value-added services, such as data processing and storage, but also allowed other providers to use BT's lines. Mercury had been set up early in by British Petroleum, Barclay's Merchant Bank, and Cable and Wireless plc to enter the business of long-distance communications, offering a customized service to companies. The license allowed it to interconnect with the BT network and to enter the European and U.

In the government undertook for seven years not to license any company but BT and Mercury to carry telecommunication services over fixed links. Under this duopoly policy, Mercury, which began operating in , was to be BT's single serious network competitor until the early s.

Less than a year after the act, the government announced its intention to privatize the British Telecommunications Corporation. At the end of the first telecommunications bill had reached the committee stage, when the general election of May was called. The bill immediately died, but was presented again in the new Parliament and finally became law in its second form, the Telecommunications Act of April 12, It had undergone hours of debate and discussion, during which BT itself had briefed members of Parliament on its views and interests.

By the act, BT lost its exclusive right to run telecommunications systems, and all PTOs had to be licensed. The new company was to be sold as an integrated organization. In November , 3. The government retained a All the offered shares were bought. Under the terms of the act, BT's main activity was to supply telecommunication services in the U. Starting in , BT's performance and development were conditioned by an official regulatory body, the semi-independent Office of Telecommunications Oftel , set up in August under the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and headed by the Director General of Telecommunications Bryan Carsberg being the first to hold the post.

A major role of this body was, by simulating the effects of real competition, to prevent BT from abusing its inherited dominance of the U. Nevertheless, the fairness of the competition was often disputed by interested parties. In its severely regulated environment, BT had lost the security of being a state monopoly, without gaining the freedom of action of a wholly autonomous business.

Oftel monitored BT's pricing, accounting, investment policies, and quality of services; issued licenses to additional competitors; and continued to facilitate the interconnection of rival services to the BT network. Competitors, for their part, tended to feel that BT was favored by the regulator. The new British Telecommunications plc created by the act then shared its monopoly in telecommunication systems with Mercury as well as Kingston Communications Hull PLC, plus some general licensees.

When BT became a separate state corporation in , before its rebirth in as a privatized company, it inherited from its Post Office days an evolved network. This network had to be brought up to date at the same time BT was taking on competition from operators starting from scratch.

These competitors were using the latest technology, without public service obligations and were able, for example, to go straight to digital systems and cheaper and more efficient fiber-optic cable, while BT still had copper wire circuits to be amortized. Sector News. All Analysis. Stock Picks. All stock picks. My Portfolio.

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