|
|
|
|
|
Bt Group PlcBT 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, and has earned its name as a national company. History of BT A number of privately owned telegraph companies operated in Britain from 1846 onwards. Among them were 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. Hull still retains an independent operator, Kingston Communications, though it is no longer municipally controlled. In 1969 the GPO, a government department, became The Post Office, a nationalised industry separate from government. Post Office Telecommunications was one of the divisions. In 1980/1981 Post Office Telecommunications was renamed British Telecom and became a state-owned corporation independent of the Post Office. In 1982 BT's monopoly on telecommunications was broken, with the grant of a licence to Cable and Wireless. The privatisation took place in 1984, with the sale of 51% of the shares in the company to the public in November. The company changed its trading name to 'BT' in March 31, 1991. The remaining state holdings in the company were sold in 1991 and 1993. In the 1990s, BT entered the Irish ISP market through a joint venture with the ESB, the Irish state owned power provider, with an aim to eventually provide internet over powerlines. This venture did not advance beyond the Ocean dialup ISP, and was eventually sold back to the ESB, who sold it to Esat. In 2000, BT bought Esat, and all its subsidary companies, including Esat Digifone, Ireland On Line and Ocean. Whilst few products or services were rebranded, the parent company for Irish operations was renamed to EsatBT, and picked up BT's piccolo player logo. EsatBT installed the first DSL lines in Ireland, and operate one exchange, in Limerick. It has been suggested that BT's Northern Ireland operations may be merged into EsatBT at some point in the future. BT's cellphone operator, Cellnet was de-merged from the company in 2001 as 'mmO2'. This included BT owned or operated networks in other countries, including Esat Digifone. All networks now owned or operated by mmO2 were renamed as O2. Businesses 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
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. 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. BT Mobile is a reseller of mobile services supplied by the UK's mobile operators and no longer owns a mobile network. BT is still the only UK telecoms operator to have a Unversal Service Obligation (USO) which means it must provide a fixed telephone line to any address in the UK. It is also obligated to provide public call boxes. See also: 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 External links Data Other * BT Tower London
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|