BT Group plc (which trades as just BT, and is commonly known by its former name, "British Telecom") is the privatised former British state telecommunications operator. It is still the dominant telecommunications provider in the United Kingdom.

Contents

1 History of BT 1.1 Early History 1.2 Later History 2 BT as it is today 3 BT's "Web patent" 4 See also 5 External links

History of BT

Early History

A number of privately owned telegraph companies operated in Britain from 1846 onwards. Among them were

• The Electric Telegraph Company,
• British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company ,
• British Telegraph Company ,
• London District Telegraph Company ,
• and the United Kingdom Telegraph Company

The Telegraph Act of 1868 passed the control of all these to the newly formed GPO (General Post Office)'s "Postal Telegraphs Department"

With the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 the GPO began to provide telephone services from some of its telegraph exchanges. However in 1882 the Postmaster-General, Henry Fawcett started to issue licences to operate a telephone service to private businesses and the telephone system grew under the GPO in some areas and private ownership in others. The GPO's main competitor the National Telephone Company emerged in this market by absorbing other private telephone companies, prior to its absoption into the GPO in 1912.

The trunk network was unified under GPO control in 1896 and the local distribution network in 1912. A few municipally owned services remained outside of GPO control. These were Kingston upon Hull, Portsmouth and Guernsey.

Later History

• 1969 the GPO, a government department, became the Post Office, a nationalised industry separate from government. Post Office Telecommunications was one of the divisions.
• 1980 Post Office Telecommunications was renamed British Telecom as prelude to privatisation.
• 1st July 1984 British Telecom was privatised as British Telecommunications plc, trading as British Telecom
• 31st March 1991 The trading name was changed from British Telecom to BT.
• April 2000 BT announced its intention split into a group of companies, under a new holding company name BT Group plc. This decision was never implemented and the company remains a single entity with a single set of accounts.

BT as it is today

BT owns and runs the telephone exchanges, trunk network and local loop connections for the vast majority of British fixed-line telephones. Currently BT is responsible for approximately 25 million telephone lines in the UK.

It is officially designated the dominant operator in British telecommunications market. BT's businesses are operated under special government regulation by the British telecoms regulator Ofcom (formerly known as Oftel).

Oftel's strategy for telecoms deregulation in the UK through the 1990s was to drive down BT's market share. It aimed to achieve this by restrictions on the size of its price increases and by forcing it to allow other telcos to gain access to the connection between the exchange and the customers premises.

This has been successful in the area of telephony resale through Independent Service Providers but has left BT as the dominant operator in ADSL connections and local loop provision.

BT Group has been organised into five business divisions

• BT Global Services: Business services and solutions (formerly BT Ignite)
• BT Openworld:BT Internet provider
• BT Retail: Retail telecoms
• BT Wholesale: Wholesale telecoms network
• BT Exact: Research and Development, and consultancy

In November 2001 the former mobile telecommunications business of BT, BT Cellnet, was demerged into a separate business named "mmO₂". This was a move designed to remove the burden of debt with which the company had encumbered itself, much of which was acquired during the bidding round for the 3rd generation mobile telephony (commonly known as 3G) licenses.

In 2003 BT resumed its participation in the UK mobile market with the launch of BT Mobile. The company denies the move is a U-turn, describing the sell-off of mmO2 as the best move for shareholders and investors. BT wishes to reach younger consumers who use BT's fixed line services less than previous generations.

See also:

• Local loop unbundling, System X

BT's "Web patent"

BT owns a controversial patent, (US patent number 4873662), which it claimed gives it a patent rights on the technology of the hyperlink on the World Wide Web. Whilst the UK patent has long since expired, the US patent is not due to expire until 2006. Opponents of BT's claims hold that the patent is not valid, due to prior art by both Douglas Englebart and Ted Nelson's Project Xanadu. On February 11, 2002, a court case relating to BT's claims started in a US federal court against Prodigy Communications Corporation. A U.S. court ruled on August 22, 2002 that the BT patent is not applicable to Web technology, and granted Prodigy's request for summary judgment.

See also

• Firebird, Rainbird , Prestel, UK topics

External links

• The BT Group Home page
• The BT Home page
• Demerged former BT mobile operator mmO2
• BT's 'Telecommunications History' webpage
• National Telephone Company history

• BBC news story on BT's claimed 'web patent'
• link to BT's patent text at USPTO
• Patent case court judgment against BT