The Phone-paid Services Authority ( PSA ) was the regulatory body for all premium rate phone-paid services in the United Kingdom . These are the content, goods and services that consumers can buy by charging the cost to their phone bills and pre-pay phone accounts.
126-731: It was founded in 1986 as the Independent Committee for the supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS) at the request of three network operators ( British Telecom , Mercury Communications , and Vodafone ) as a response to public criticism of their profiting from adult premium rate content. It re-branded itself as PhonepayPlus (PPP) in June 2007 and then as Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA) in November 2016. The PSA's authority to regulate Controlled Premium Rate Services (CPRS) came from Section 120 and 121 of
252-444: A blunderbuss , each guard carried a secure timepiece by which departure times at each stage of the journey were strictly regulated. In 1830 mail was carried by train for the first time, on the newly-opened Liverpool and Manchester Railway ; over the next decade the railways replaced mail coaches as the principal means of conveyance (the last mail coach departed from London on 6 January 1846). The first Travelling Post Office (TPO)
378-571: A lottery bond called the Premium Bond was introduced. In the mid-1960s the GPO was asked by the government to expand into banking services which resulted in the creation of the National Giro in 1968. When new forms of communication came into existence in the 19th and early 20th centuries the GPO claimed monopoly rights on the basis that like the postal service they involved delivery from
504-557: A proclamation 'for the settling of the Letter-office of England and Scotland', an event which 'may properly be regarded as the origin of the British post-office'. By this decree, Thomas Witherings (who had been appointed 'Postmaster of England for foreign parts' three years earlier) was empowered to provide for the carriage of private letters at fixed rates 'betwixt London and all parts of His Majesty's dominions'. To this end,
630-700: A royal warrant and has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange , and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index . BT controls a number of large subsidiaries. Its BT Enterprise division supplies telecoms services to corporate and government customers worldwide, and its BT Consumer division supplies telephony , broadband , and subscription television services in the United Kingdom to around 18 million customers. A number of privately owned electrical telegraph companies operated in
756-494: A sender and to a receiver . The theory was used to expand state control of the mail service into every form of electronic communication possible on the basis that every sender used some form of distribution service. These distribution services were considered in law as forms of electronic post offices. This applied to telegraph and telephone switching stations. In 1846, the Electric Telegraph Company ,
882-656: A 4G service as BT Mobile BT Group CEO Gavin Patterson announced that BT plans to migrate all of its customers onto the IP network by 2025, switching off the company's ISDN network. On 15 January 2016, BT received approval by the Competition and Markets Authority to acquire EE . The deal was officially completed on 29 January 2016 with Deutsche Telekom then owning 12% of BT, while Orange S.A. owned 4%. General Post Office The General Post Office ( GPO )
1008-709: A 60% drop in share price in sixteen months. Philip Hampton joined as CFO, and in April 2001 Sir Iain Vallance was replaced as chairman by recognised turn around expert Sir Christopher Bland . In May 2001, BT carried out corporate Europe's largest ever rights issue , allowing it to raise £5.9 billion. A few days before, it sold stakes in Japan Telecom , in mobile operator J-Phone Communications, and in Airtel of India to Vodafone . In June 2001, BT's directory business
1134-675: A bell to attract custom was adopted by the Post Office and went on to be employed in major cities until the mid-19th century. In 1761 permission was given for the establishment of penny-post arrangements elsewhere in the realm, to function along the same lines as the London office, if they could be made financially viable; by the end of the century there were penny-post systems operating in Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin, Edinburgh and Manchester (to be joined by Glasgow and Newcastle-upon-Tyne in
1260-642: A court ruling obliged the London Penny Post to come under the authority of the Postmaster General. Although now part of the GPO, the London Penny Post continued to operate entirely independently of the General (or 'Inland') Post until 1854 (when the two systems were combined). An attempt by Charles Povey to set up a rival halfpenny post in 1709 was halted after several months' operation; however Povey's practice of having letter-carriers ring
1386-480: A debt of £30 billion, much of which was acquired during the bidding round for the 3rd generation mobile telephony (commonly known as 3G) licences. It had also failed in its series of proposed global mergers, and the funds flowing from its then virtual monopoly of the UK market place had been largely removed. It was also headed by two executives who had little support from the London Stock Exchange , particularly in light of
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#17327941357331512-545: A fee. The trade in these 'ship letters' was acknowledged (and legitimised) in the Post Office Acts of 1657 and 1660. Attempts were made to levy Post Office fees on these letters and 'ship letter money' was offered to captains for each letter given to a postmaster on arrival in England in order for these charges to be applied; however they were under no legal obligation to comply and the majority of ship letters evaded
1638-430: A hand bell. While postmasters were not obliged to deliver items to places outside the boundary, they could agree to do so on payment of an extra fee. In the 1780s, Britain's General Post network was revolutionised by theatrical impresario John Palmer 's idea of using mail coaches in place of the longstanding use of post horses. After initial resistance from the postal authorities, a trial took place in 1784, by which it
1764-409: A horse and cart or waggon, while the universities, along with certain municipal and other corporations, maintained their own correspondence networks. Many letters went by foot-post rather than on horseback. Footposts or runners were employed by many towns, cities and other communities, and had been for many years. A 16th-century footpost would cover around 30 miles per day, on average. At the time of
1890-596: A hundred miles a day. Under King Henry VIII a concerted effort was made to maintain a regular postal system for the conveyance of royal and government despatches (in times of peace as well as in time of war). To oversee the system, the king appointed Brian Tuke to serve as 'Master of the Postes'. By the 1550s five post roads were in place, connecting London with Dover , Edinburgh , Holyhead (via Chester ), Milford Haven (via Bristol ) and Plymouth . (A sixth post road, to Norwich via Colchester , would be added in
2016-486: A package of broadcast rights for the Premier League from the 2013–14 to 2015–16 season, broadcasting 38 matches from each season. In February 2013, BT acquired ESPN Inc. 's UK and Ireland TV channels, continuing its expansion into sports broadcasting. ESPN America and ESPN Classic were both closed, while ESPN continued to be operated by BT. On 9 November 2013, BT announced it had acquired exclusive rights to
2142-529: A range of services, each organisation would be able to focus on their respective service, with dedicated management. By law, the Post Office retained the exclusive right to operate the UK national telecom network, (although since 1914 had licensed Hull City Council to operate its own local telephone network, Kingston Communications ). The 1970s was a period of great expansion for the Post Office. Most exchanges were modernised and expanded, and many services, such as STD and international dialling were extended. By
2268-549: A regular mail-carrying service in exchange for a fee or subsidy. In the following century, packet services out of Falmouth began to sail to the West Indies, North America and other transatlantic destinations. Packet boats, however, were not the only means of conveying letters overseas: there had always been the option of sending them by merchant ship, and coffee houses had long been accustomed to receiving letters and packages on behalf of ships' captains, who would carry them for
2394-511: A regular public postal service came the need for waterborne mail services (carrying letters to and from Ireland, continental Europe and other destinations) to be placed on a more regular footing. ' Packet boats ', offering a regular scheduled mail service, were already in use for the passage between Holyhead and Dublin; but for letters to and from the Continent the post was entrusted to messengers, who would make their own travel arrangements. This
2520-481: A service (SaaS) applications. In the early days of its fibre broadband rollout, BT said it would deliver fibre-to-the-premises ( FTTP ) to around 25% of the Country, with the rest catered for by the slower fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC), which uses copper wiring to deliver the final stretch of the connection. In 2014, with less than 0.7% of the company's fibre network being FTTP, BT dropped the 25% target, saying that it
2646-556: A system for the conveyance of foreign dispatches had been set up, organised by Flemish merchants in the City of London ; but in 1558, after a dispute arose between Italian, Flemish and English merchants on the matter, the Master of the King's Posts was granted oversight of it instead. In 1619, James I appointed a separate Postmaster General 'for foreign parts', granting him (and his appointees)
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#17327941357332772-441: A team of four horses, rather than six as was usual for a stage coach at that time). The long-established practice of 'riding post' was acknowledged through the provision of four seats inside the coach for passengers. The mail bags were carried in a locked box at the back, above which sat a scarlet-coated guard. While the coaches and coachmen were provided by contractors, the guards worked for the Post Office. As well as two pistols and
2898-424: Is a matter of general concernment, and of great advantage, as well for the preservation of trade and commerce as otherwise". To begin with the Post Office was again farmed, nominally to Henry Bishop , but the deal was bankrolled by John Wildman (a gentleman of dubious repute, who kept a tight rein on his investment). Two years later Wildman was imprisoned, implicated in a plot against the King, whereupon Bishop sold
3024-593: Is no longer municipally controlled. The assets of the National Telephone Company were acquired by the UK Government to form Post Office Telephones in late 1911. Post Office engineers in the inter-war period had considerable expertise in both telecommunications and hearing assistive devices. Transistors were invented by Bell Telephone Laboratories in the US in 1948, however it was not until
3150-519: The Champions League and Europa League for £897m, from the 2015 season, with some free games remaining including both finals. On 1 November 2014, BT created a new central business services organisation to provide customer services and improve operational efficiency. On 24 November 2014, shares in BT rose considerably on the announcement that the company was in talks to buy back O2 , while at
3276-469: The Communications Act 2003 and through Ofcom's Premium Rate Services Condition . PSA regulated those services using a Code of Practice , approved by Ofcom . This set out the rules with which all such providers must comply. Among other things, it required clear and accurate pricing information, honest advertising and service content, and appropriate and targeted promotions. At first the code
3402-692: The Electricity Supply Board , the Irish state owned power provider. This venture, entitled Ocean, found its main success through the launch of Ireland's first subscription-free dial-up ISP, oceanfree.net. As a telecoms company it found much less success, mainly targeting corporate customers. BT acquired 100% of this venture in 1999. Over the period 1980 to 2000, BT and other providers adopted Internet product strategies when it became commercially advantageous. In June 1994 BT and MCI Communications launched Concert Communications Services which
3528-809: The English National Health Service (NHS). In 2005, BT made a number of acquisitions. In February 2005, BT acquired Infonet (now re-branded BT Infonet), a large telecoms company based in El Segundo, California , giving BT access to new geographies. It also acquired the Italian company Albacom. Then in April 2005, it bought Radianz from Reuters (now rebranded as BT Radianz), which expanded BT's coverage and provided BT with more buying power in certain countries. In August 2006, BT acquired online electrical retailer Dabs.com for £30.6 million. The BT Home Hub manufactured by Inventel
3654-765: The Leeward Islands was enjoined. The Irish post at this time operated as part of the GPO under a Deputy Postmaster General based in Dublin; but in 1784 an Act was passed by the Parliament of Ireland providing for an independent Post Office in Ireland under its own Postmaster General (an arrangement that remained in place until 1831). The established post roads in Britain ran to and from London. The use of other roads required government permission (for example, it
3780-757: The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company ran ships out of Southampton to the West Indies and South America, the British and North American Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company (aka the Cunard Line ) covered the North Atlantic route, while the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company provided services on eastward routes to the Mediterranean, India and Australia. From 1840 vessels carrying mail under Admiralty contract had
3906-484: The Spanish Armada every parish was by royal command required to provide a footpost, and every town a horse-post, to help convey news in the event of an imminent invasion. By the early 1600s there were two options for couriers using the post system: they could either ride 'through-post', carrying the correspondence the full distance; or they could use the 'post of the packet', whereby the letters were carried by
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4032-630: The Strowger system for small and medium cities and towns. The telephone systems of Jersey and the Isle of Man , obtained from the NTC were offered for sale to the respective governments of the islands. Both initially refused, but the States of Jersey did eventually take control of their island's telephones in 1923. On 27 July 1896, Guglielmo Marconi gave the first demonstration of wireless telegraphy from
4158-573: The US Department of Justice , and the US Federal Communications Commission and looked set to proceed. However, in light of pressure from investors reacting to the slide in BT's share price on the London Stock Exchange , BT reduced its bid price for MCI, releasing MCI from its exclusivity clause and allowing it to speak to other interested parties. On 1 October 1997, Worldcom made a rival bid for MCI which
4284-546: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1846 onwards. Among them were: The Telegraph Act 1868 passed the control of all these to the Postal Telegraphs Department of the newly formed General Post Office (GPO). The Telegraph Act 1869 granted the GPO a monopoly over communications. 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. It
4410-646: The War of the Spanish Succession ). The distribution network was centred on the General Letter Office in London (which was on Threadneedle Street prior to the Great Fire of London , after which it moved first to Bishopsgate and then to Lombard Street in 1678). The incoming post arrived each week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; it was sorted and stamped : London letters went to
4536-452: The sole privilege of carrying foreign correspondence to and from London. (The separate Postmaster General appointments were consolidated in 1637, but the 'foreign' and 'inland' postal services remained separate in terms of administration and accounting until the mid-19th century). It was not until 1635 that a general or public post was properly established, for inland letters as for foreign ones. On 31 July that year, King Charles I issued
4662-426: The 'windows' where members of the public were able to collect them from the office in person (once they had paid the requisite fee), while 'Country letters' were dispatched along the relevant post road. The outgoing post went on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Postage was payable by the recipient (rather than the sender) and depended on the length of the letter and the distance it had travelled; each individual charge
4788-645: The 1830s). In 1801 the cost of posting a letter within the central London area was doubled; thenceforward the London District Post was known as the 'Two-penny Post' until its amalgamation into the General Post 53 years later. During the reign of King William III , the General Post Office created a network of 'receiving-houses', in London and the larger provincial towns, where senders could submit items. A Scottish Post Office
4914-534: The 1880 ruling on the Telegraph Act 1869 mandated a nationalised service – which was instated in 1911 prior to the absorption of the NTC 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
5040-517: The 1970s, resulting in the EPSS , International Packet Switched Service , and Packet Switch Stream . In 1979 the Conservatives decided that telecommunications should be fully separated from the Post Office. The British Telecom brand was introduced in 1980. On 1 October 1981, this became the official name of Post Office Telecommunications, which became a state-owned corporation independent of
5166-792: The 2019 Ofcom reform of this number range removed the underlying basis for premium rate charges and internet dialler-operated services until 1 February 2025 these having been deemed by Ofcom to be obsolete. On 25 October 2024, Ofcom published their official notice stating that Ofcom will formally withdraw its approval of the PSA Code on 1 February 2025 and will take the regulation of Controlled Premium Rate Services (CPRS) back in-house on that date. A number of key PSA staff have already been embedded within Ofcom for some time in preparation for this. The PSA Code of Practice will be replaced by Ofcom's Regulation of Premium Rate Services Order 2024 on that date, using
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5292-458: The Admiralty took over managing the long-distance routes out of Falmouth, while services to and from Ireland and the continent were increasingly put out to commercial tender. Eventually, in 1837, the Admiralty took over control of the whole operation (and with it the remaining Post Office vessels). Subsequently, contracts for carrying mail began to be awarded to new large-scale shipping lines :
5418-752: The British Isles (the nations of which had been unified under Oliver Cromwell as a result of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms ), stating that 'there shall be one General Post-Office, and one office stiled the Postmaster-Generall of England and Comptroller of the Post-Office'. The Act also reasserted the postal monopoly for letter delivery and for post-horses; and it set new rates both for carriage of letters and for 'riding post'. During
5544-534: The Commonwealth, what had been a weekly post service to and from London was increased to a thrice-weekly service: letters were despatched from the General Letter Office in London every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evening, while the inbound post arrived early in the morning on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Usually the recipient of the post paid the fee (and had the right to refuse to accept
5670-465: The Concert managed network was extensive. Although Concert continued signing customers, its rate of revenue growth slowed, so that in 1999 David Dorman was made CEO with a brief to revive it. In late 2000, the BT and AT&T boards fell-out, partly due to each partner's excess debt and the resulting board room clear-outs, partly due to Concert's extensive annual losses. AT&T recognized that Concert
5796-518: The Crown). At Dover merchant ships were regularly employed to convey letters to and from the continent . A similar system connected Holyhead and Milford to Ireland (and by the end of the 16th century a packet service had been established on the Holyhead to Dublin route). Private citizens could make use of the post-horse network, if they could afford it (in 1583 they had to pay twopence per mile for
5922-611: The GPO (in particular the Hull Telephones Department (now privatised) and the telephone system of Guernsey ). The GPO took over the company on 1 January 1912; transferring 1,565 exchanges and 9,000 employees at a cost of £12,515,264. The GPO installed several automatic telephone exchanges from several vendors in trials at Darlington on 10 October 1914 and Dudley on 9 September 1916 ( rotary system ), Fleetwood (relay exchange from Sweden), Grimsby (Siemens), Hereford (Lorimer) and Leeds (Strowger). The GPO then selected
6048-501: The GPO becoming a public corporation, Post Office Telecommunications . The British Telecom brand was introduced in 1980, and became independent of the Post Office in 1981, officially trading under the name. British Telecom was privatised in 1984, becoming British Telecommunications plc , with some 50 percent of its shares sold to investors. The Government sold its remaining stake in further share sales in 1991 and 1993. BT holds
6174-516: The GPO came to be viewed less as a revenue-raising body and more as a public service . The Post Office Savings Bank was introduced in 1861, when there were few banks outside major towns. By 1863, 2,500 post offices were offering a savings service . Gradually more financial services were offered by post offices, including government stocks and bonds in 1880, insurance and annuities in 1888, and war savings certificates in 1916. In 1909 old age pensions were introduced, payable at post offices. In 1956
6300-454: The Peace had been ordered to arrange appointment of two to three foot-posts in every parish for the conveyance of letters), though in practice precise details were often left to the local postmaster. On the return journey to London, bags of letters would be picked up from each post-house on the way, and taken to the General Letter Office to be sorted for despatch. With the establishment of
6426-597: The Phone-paid Services Authority upheld a breach of its Code, the company responsible must immediately amend the service and/or its promotional material so that it complied with the Code. In most cases, companies found in breach of the Code were charged to cover the cost of the investigation. The Phone-paid Services Authority also had the power to impose the following sanctions: As of 1 February 2025, Ofcom will wield these powers directly. Chairs of
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#17327941357336552-559: The Post Master General obtained a court judgement that telephone conversations were, technically, within the remit of the Telegraph Act. The General Post Office then licensed all existing telephone networks. The effective nationalisation of the UK telecommunications industry occurred in 1912 with the takeover of the National Telephone Company which left only a few municipal undertakings independent of
6678-628: The Post Office under the provisions of the British Telecommunications Act 1981 . In 1982 BT's monopoly on telecommunications was broken with the granting of a licence to Mercury Communications . On 19 July 1982, the Government announced its intention to sell shares in British Telecom to the public. On 1 April 1984, British Telecommunications was incorporated as a public limited company (plc) in anticipation of
6804-463: The Post Office.) The expansion of the service beyond the main post-roads was in no small part due to the enterprise of the Deputy post-masters themselves, who were allowed to profit from branch services which they established and operated. In this way, the network of 'by-posts' greatly expanded in the 1670s: in 1673 Blome could write that 'there is scarce any Market-Town of note [which does not have]
6930-494: The Postmaster General. Alongside money orders, postal orders were introduced in 1881, which were cheaper and easier to cash. Postal orders and money orders were vital at this time for transactions between small businesses, as well as individuals, because bank transfer facilities were only available to major businesses and for larger sums of money. In 1840 the Uniform Penny Post was introduced, which incorporated
7056-435: The Research Section of the Telegraph Office, which had its origins in innovative areas of work being pursued by staff in the Engineering Department. In the 1920s a dedicated research station was set up by the GPO seven miles away in Dollis Hill ; during the Second World War the world's first electronic computer, ' Colossus ', was designed and constructed there by Tommy Flowers and other GPO engineers. The Telegraph Office
7182-455: The UK. The responsibility for the 'electric telegraphs' was officially transferred to the GPO in 1870. Overseas telegraphs did not fall within the monopoly. The private telegraph companies that already existed were bought out. The new combined telegraph service had 1,058 telegraph offices in towns and cities and 1,874 offices at railway stations. 6,830,812 telegrams were transmitted in 1869 producing revenue of £550,000. London's Central Office in
7308-594: The acquisition of Lynx Technology. BT acquired Wire One Communications in June 2008 and folded the company into "BT Conferencing", its existing conferencing unit, as a new video business unit In July 2008, BT acquired the online business directory firm Ufindus for £20 million in order to expand its position in the local information market in GB. On 28 July 2008, BT acquired Ribbit , of Mountain View, California , "Silicon Valley's First Phone Company". Ribbit provides Adobe Flash / Flex APIs, allowing web developers to incorporate telephony features into their software as
7434-422: The benefit of the conveyance of letters to and fro'; he went on to list, County by County, both the 'Stages' on the post-roads (of which there were over 140) and the Post-towns on the branch roads (which by then numbered over 380 in total), where members of the public were able to leave letters with a Post-Master 'to be sent as directed'. Before long moves were made to incorporate the by-posts (and their income) into
7560-465: The board have included: Members of the board have included: British Telecom BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom ) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London , England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line , broadband and mobile services in the UK, and also provides subscription television and IT services . BT's origins date back to
7686-655: The company from running other services under a different company name. Investigations and adjudications were free to consumers and were supposed to be fully independent. The Phone-paid Services Authority regulated a subset of services using the following number ranges: 087, 090, 091, 098 and 118, plus five-, six-, and seven-digit mobile voice and text shortcodes beginning with a 6, 7 or 8. PSA also regulated specific high-risk services such as sexual entertainment services as well as chat lines and call-connection services (ICSS), irrespective of call price or number range used. It also regulated services operating on numbers starting 070 until
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#17327941357337812-463: The country. The 1850s also saw the widespread introduction of red-painted post boxes where the public could deposit their outgoing mail. Few other organisations (either of state or of commerce) could rival the early Victorian Post Office in the extent of its national coverage. Its counters began to be relied upon for providing other government services (e.g. the issuing of licences of various types); and increasingly (and significantly) in this period,
7938-417: The early 17th century.) Each post-house on the road was staffed by a postmaster , whose main responsibility was to provide the horses; he would also provide a guide to accompany the messenger as far as the next post house (and then see to the return of the horses afterwards). In practice most post-houses were established at roadside inns and the innkeeper served as postmaster (in return for a small salary from
8064-480: The early 1970s, subscribers in most cities could dial direct to Western Europe, the US, and Canada; by the end of the decade, most of the world could be dialled direct. The System X digital switching platform was developed, and the first digital exchanges began to be installed. The Post Office also procured their own fleet of vans, based on the Commer FC model. Post Office Telecommunications researched and implemented data communications using packet switching in
8190-424: The establishment of the Penny Post, the only location where letters could be posted in London was the General Letter Office in Lombard Street .) The receiving-houses were often found in public houses, coffee houses or other retail premises. Deliveries were made six or eight times a day in central London (and a minimum of four times a day in the outskirts). The innovation was a great success, and within two years
8316-401: The extra charges. In 1680 William Dockwra and Robert Murray founded the 'Penny Post', which enabled letters and parcels to be sent cheaply to and from destinations in and around London. A flat fee of a penny was charged for sending letters or parcels up to a pound in weight within an area comprising the City of London, the City of Westminster and the Borough of Southwark ; while two-pence
8442-423: The failed merger led to their removal. As BT owned Concert in 1994, and still wanted access to the North American market, it needed a new partner. An AT&T /BT option had been mooted in the past, but stopped on regulatory grounds due to their individual virtual monopolies in their home markets. By 1996, this had receded to the point where a deal was possible, and a deal was consummated in 1998. At its height,
8568-589: The first customers on to 21CN was successfully tested at Adastral Park in Suffolk. In January 2007, BT acquired Sheffield-based ISP, PlusNet plc, adding 200,000 customers. BT stated that PlusNet will continue to operate separately out of its Sheffield head-office. On 1 February 2007, BT announced agreed terms to acquire International Network Services Inc. (INS), an international provider of IT consultancy and software. In February 2007, Sir Michael Rake succeeded Sir Christopher Bland. In April that year, they acquired COMSAT International, followed in October by
8694-417: The first decade of nationalized telegraphy created two levels of service. High-status circuits catering to the state, international trade, sporting life, and imperial business. Low-status circuits directed toward the local and the provincial. These distinct telegraphic orbits were connected to different types of telegraph instruments operated by differently gendered telegraphists. 1909 saw the establishment of
8820-521: The first online not-for-profit fundraising service for UK charities called BT MyDonate as part of its investment to the community. The service will pass on 100% of all donations made through the site to the charity, and unlike other services which take a proportion as commission and charge charities for using their services, BT will only pass on credit/debit card charges for each donation. The service allows people to register to give money to charity or collect fundraising donations. BT developed MyDonate with
8946-410: The founding in 1846 of the Electric Telegraph Company , the world's first public telegraph company, which developed a nationwide communications network. BT Group as it came to be started in 1912, when the General Post Office , a government department, took over the system of the National Telephone Company becoming the monopoly telecoms supplier in the United Kingdom. The Post Office Act of 1969 led to
9072-597: The growing "office automation" market was addressed through Merlin-branded desktop computers made by ICL , with built-in modems to communicate over the phone network. Later products included the Merlin Tonto – developed by ICL from the Sinclair QL home computer – and the Merlin M4000 , a rebadged Logica computer. In the 1990s, BT entered the Irish telecommunications market through a joint venture with
9198-412: The guides from one post house to the next in a cotton-lined leather bag (although this method was only available for royal, government or diplomatic correspondence). The guides at this time were provided with a post horn , which they had to sound at regular intervals or when encountering others on the road (other road users were expected to give way to the post riders ). At the start of the 16th century
9324-503: The horse, plus fourpence per stage for the guide), but it was primarily designed for the relaying of state and royal correspondence, or for the conveyance from one place to another of individuals engaged on official state business (who paid a reduced rate). Private correspondence was often sent using common carriers at this time, or with others who regularly journeyed from place to place (such as travelling pedlars ); towns often made use of local licensed carriers, who plied their trade using
9450-483: The inhabitants of the nation. At that time there were 182 Deputy Post-Masters (or 'Deputies') in England [and Wales], most of whom were stationed at the 'Stages' or stops which lay along the six main post-roads; and under them were sub-Post-masters , based at market towns which were not on the main post-roads but to which the service had been extended. (The sub-Post-masters, unlike the Deputies, were not employed by
9576-529: The item if they did not wish to pay); the charge was based on the distance the item had been carried so the Post Office had to keep a separate account for each item. After the Restoration , the Post Office Act 1660 ( 12 Cha. 2 . c. 35) was passed (the previous Cromwellian Act being void), confirming the arrangements in place for the Post Office, and the post of Postmaster General, and emphasizing
9702-477: The latter's accession to the throne as King James II , this income became part of the hereditary revenues of the Crown ; and subsequently, under the growing scrutiny of HM Treasury , the postal service came increasingly to be viewed as a source of government income (as seen in the Post Office (Revenues) Act 1710 , which increased postal charges and levied tax on the income in order to finance Britain's involvement in
9828-575: The lease on to the King's gunpowder manufacturer, Daniel O'Neill ; after the latter's death, his widow the Countess of Chesterfield served out the remainder of the original seven-year term (so becoming the first female Postmaster General). Meanwhile, under the terms of a 1663 Act of Parliament, the 'rents, issues and profits' of the Post Office had been settled by the King on his brother, the Duke of York, to provide for his support and maintenance. Following
9954-500: The length of journey required it). Under Edward IV , however, a more efficient system was put in place (albeit temporarily) to aid communications during his war with Scotland : a number of post houses were established at twenty-mile intervals along the Great North Road , between London and Berwick , to provide the king's messengers with fresh horses for each stage of the journey; in this way they were able to travel up to
10080-517: The mail bags from one post-house to the next; the postmaster at the next post-house would then record the time of arrival, before transferring the bags to a new horse, ridden by a new post-boy, for the next stage of the journey. On the outbound journey from London, the mail for each Stage (and its associated Post-towns) was left at the relevant post-house. Arrangements for its onward delivery varied somewhat from place to place. Witherings had envisaged using 'foot-posts' for this purpose (in 1620 Justices of
10206-516: The medieval period, nobles generally employed messengers to deliver letters and other items on their behalf. In the 12th century a permanent body of messengers had been formed within the Royal Household of King Henry I , for the conveyance of royal and official correspondence. The messengers delivered their messages in person, each travelling on his own horse and taking time as needed for rest and refreshment (including stopping overnight if
10332-524: The messengers appointed by the said Thomas Witherings', thus establishing a monopoly, which (under the auspices of the Royal Mail ) would remain in place until 2006. Under the Commonwealth the Post Office was farmed to John Manley and John Thurloe , successively. In 1657 an Act of Parliament entitled Postage of England, Scotland and Ireland Settled set up a postal system for the whole of
10458-509: The mid-1960s that a transistorised oscillator was introduced to make the calling sound on a telephone in the UK. In 1969 the GPO, a government department, became the Post Office , a nationalised industry separate from government. Post Office Telecommunications was set up as a division of the Post Office, in October 1969. The Post Office Act 1969 was passed to provide for greater efficiency in post and telephone services; rather than run
10584-459: The name change not much else changed in operations for another 12 months. On 14 May 2009, BT said it was cutting up to 15,000 jobs in the coming year after it announced its results for the year to 31 March 2009. Then in July 2009, BT offered workers a long holiday for an up front sum of 25% of their annual wage or a one-off payment of £1000 if they agree to go part-time. On 6 April 2011, BT launched
10710-506: The national network: 'Riding Surveyors' were appointed in 1682, to travel with the post and scrutinise the Deputies' income and activity at each Stage (particularly in relation to by-letters); in later years the Surveyors served as the GPO's inspectorate , tasked with maintaining efficiency and consistency across the network (until they were finally disbanded in the 1930s). It was usual for each postmaster to employ post-boys to ride with
10836-507: The network of post towns served by the General Post, and at the same time did much to reform its workings. In 1772 the Court of the King's Bench ruled that letters ought to be delivered directly to recipients within the boundaries of each post town at no additional cost. Often a messenger with a locked satchel would be employed by the postmaster to deliver and receive items of mail around town; he would alert people to his presence by ringing
10962-548: The new arrangement, the King commanded 'all his postmasters, upon all the roads of England, to have ready in their stables one or two horses [...] to carry such messengers, with their portmantles , as shall be imployed in the said service', and they were forbidden from hiring out these horses to others on days when the mail was due. Furthermore, it was enjoined that (with a few specific exceptions) 'no other messenger or messengers, footpost or footposts, shall take up, carry, receive or deliver any letter or letters whatsoever, other than
11088-494: The new plc were owned by the Government. In November 1984, 50.2% of the new company was offered for sale to the public and employees. Shares were listed in London, New York, and Toronto and the first day of trading on was 3 December 1984. The Government sold half its remaining interest in December 1991 and the other half in July 1993. In July 1997, the new Labour Government relinquished its Special Share ("Golden Share"), retained at
11214-436: The packet ship services. Since the 1780s these had been run on behalf of the Post Office by private contractors, who depended on supplementary income from fee-paying passengers in order to make a profit; but in the 19th-century steamships began to lure the passengers away. At some considerable cost the Post Office resolved to build and operate its own fleet of steam vessels, but the service became increasingly inefficient. In 1823
11340-573: The passing of the Telecommunications Bill. This Bill received royal assent on 12 April as the Telecommunications Act 1984 , and the transfer to British Telecommunications plc from British Telecom as a statutory corporation of its business, its property, its rights and liabilities took place on 6 August 1984. The remainder of the statutory corporation British Telecom was dissolved in 1994. Initially all shares in
11466-560: The powers granted by Section 122 of the Communications Act 2003. These changes follow a public consultation held by Ofcom in 2023. The consultation document states that it was the PSA Board that had suggested to Ofcom that they take back direct control of these functions. Additionally, the changeover had originally been planned for an earlier date but was delayed by the calling of an earlier than expected General Election. When
11592-483: The privilege of being badged and designated as Royal Mail Ships (RMS). In 1838 the Money Order Office was established, to provide a secure means of transferring money to people in different parts of the country (or world), and to discourage people from sending cash by post. The money order system had first been introduced as a private enterprise by three Post Office clerks in 1792, with the permission of
11718-422: The public and economic benefits of a General Post system: "Whereas for the maintenance of mutual correspondencies, and prevention of many inconveniences happening by private posts, several public post-offices have been heretofore erected for carrying and recarrying of letters by post to and from all parts and places within England, Scotland, and Ireland, and several posts beyond the seas, the well-ordering whereof
11844-460: The rest of the realm). Witherings was required to extend the new system to other post roads 'as soon as possibly may be' (beginning with the routes to Oxford and Bristol, and to Colchester, Norwich and Yarmouth); and provision was also made for the establishment of 'bye-posts' to run to and from places not directly served by the post road system (such as Lincoln and Hull). The new system was fully and profitably running by 1636. In order to facilitate
11970-622: The roof of the Telegraph Office in St. Martin's Le Grand. The development of radio links for sending telegraphs led to the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1904 , which granted control of radio waves to the General Post Office, who licensed all senders and receivers. This placed the Post Office in a position of control over radio and television broadcasting as those technologies were developed. By 1900 house-to-house mail delivery
12096-455: The royal proclamation instructed him to establish 'a running post, to run night and day', initially between London and Edinburgh, London and Holyhead and London and Plymouth, 'for the advancement of all His Majesty's subjects in their trade and correspondence'. (A similar system, running between London and Dover, had already been established by Witherings as part of his administration of the foreign posts, and he himself had proposed its extension to
12222-437: The same time confirmed it was also in talks to acquire EE . BT subsequently entered into exclusive talks to buy EE for £12.5 billion on 15 December 2014 and confirmed on 5 February 2015, subject to regulatory approval. The deal combined BT's 10 million retail customers and EE's 24.5 million direct mobile subscribers. Deutsche Telekom would own 12% of BT, while Orange S.A. would own 4%. In March 2015, BT launched
12348-442: The start of the 21st century the Post Office became a public limited company (initially called 'Consignia plc'), which was renamed ' Royal Mail Group plc' in 2002. In 2012 the counters business (known as ' Post Office Limited ' since 2002) was taken out of Royal Mail Group, prior to the latter's privatisation in 2013. The privatised holding company (Royal Mail plc) was renamed International Distributions Services plc in 2022. In
12474-447: The support of Cancer Research UK , Changing Faces , KidsOut , NSPCC and Women's Aid . In March 2013, BT was allocated 4G spectrum in the UK following an auction and assignment by Ofcom, after paying £201.5m. On 1 August 2013, BT launched its first television channels, BT Sport , to compete with rival broadcaster Sky Sports . Plans for the channels' launch came about when it was announced in June 2012 that BT had been awarded
12600-472: The telecommunications and postal sides were split prior to British Telecommunications ' conversion into a totally separate publicly owned corporation the following year as a result of the British Telecommunications Act 1981 . In 1986 the Post Office Counters business was made functionally separate from Royal Mail Letters and Royal Mail Parcels (the latter being rebranded as ' Parcelforce '). At
12726-562: The time of the flotation, which had effectively given it the power to block a takeover of the company, and to appoint two non-executive directors to the Board. The company changed its trading name to "BT" on 2 April 1991. In 1996 Peter Bonfield was appointed CEO and chairman of the executive committee, promising a "rollercoaster ride". In the early 1980s, BT Merlin was established as a business unit of British Telecom, at first to sell products such as phone systems to small businesses. In 1983,
12852-474: The two key innovations of a uniform postal rate, which cut administrative costs and encouraged use of the system, and adhesive pre-paid stamp. Packets (weighing up to 16 ounces (450 g)) could also be sent by post, the cost of postage varying with the weight. The reforms were devised and overseen by Rowland Hill , having been initially proposed in Parliament by Robert Wallace MP . A book post service
12978-537: The world's first public telegraph company, was established in the UK and developed a nationwide communications network. Several other private telegraph companies soon followed. The Telegraph Act 1868 granted the Postmaster General the right to acquire inland telegraph companies in the United Kingdom and the Telegraph Act 1869 conferred on the Postmaster General a monopoly in telegraphic communication in
13104-446: Was "far less relevant today" because of improvements made to the headline speed of FTTC, which had doubled to 80 Mbit/s since its fibre broadband rollout was first announced. To supplement FTTC, BT offered an 'FTTP on Demand' product. In January 2015, BT stopped taking orders for the on-demand product. On 1 April 2009, BT Engage IT was created from the merger of two previous BT acquisitions, Lynx Technology and Basilica. Apart from
13230-482: Was a $ 1 billion joint venture between the two companies. Its aim was to build a network which would provide easy global connectivity to multinational corporations. This alliance progressed further on 3 November 1996 when the two companies announced that they had agreed to a merger, creating a global telecommunications company called Concert plc. The proposal gained approval from the European Commission ,
13356-557: Was a threat to its ambitions if left intact, and so negotiated a deal where Concert was split in two in 2001: North America and Eastern Asia went to AT&T, the rest of the world and $ 400M to BT. BT's remaining Concert assets were merged into its BT Ignite, later BT Global Services group. In 2000, BT acquired Esat Telecom Group plc , and all its subsidiary companies, and Ireland On Line . It also purchased Telenor 's minority shareholding in Esat Digifone . The Esat Telecom Group
13482-441: Was accomplished via a share-swap, all British Telecommunications plc shareholders received one mmO2 plc and one BT Group plc (of which British Telecommunications is now a wholly owned subsidiary) share for each share they owned. British Telecommunications plc was de-listed on 16 November, and the two new companies started trading on 19 November. At the end of the series of sales, Sir Peter Bonfield resigned in October 2001. Bonfield
13608-449: Was also launched in June 2006. In October 2006, BT confirmed that it would be investing 75% of its total capital spending, put at £10 billion over five years, in its new Internet Protocol (IP) based 21st century network (21CN). Annual savings of £1 billion per annum were expected when the transition to the new network was to have been completed in 2010, with over 50% of its customers to have been transferred by 2008. That month
13734-478: Was calculated in London and entered into a book, which went with the letters on the road, indicating the amounts due from each postmaster for the letters delivered into his care. At first the new postal network was not especially well publicised; but in his 1673 publication Britannia , Richard Blome sought to remedy this by describing in some detail the geographical disposition of the new 'general Post-Office' , which he called an 'exceeding great conveniency' for
13860-413: Was charged for items posted or delivered in the surrounding 'country' area (which included places such as Hackney, Newington, Lambeth and Islington). The Penny Post letter-carriers operated from seven main sorting offices around London, which were supplemented by between four and five hundred 'receiving houses' in all the principal streets in the area, where members of the public could post items. (Prior to
13986-665: Was confirmed in 1880 that the 1869 Act included telephony even though the telephone had not been invented when the Act was first conceived. 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 (NTC), emerged in this market by absorbing other private telephone companies. It controlled most of telephony in Britain before
14112-436: Was demonstrated that a mail coach departing from Bristol at 4pm would regularly arrive in London at 9 o'clock the following morning: a day and a half quicker than the post horses. As a result, the conveyance of letters by mail coach, under armed guard, was approved by Act of Parliament. Mail coaches were similar in design to the passenger-carrying stage coaches , but were smaller, lighter and more manoeuvrable (being pulled by
14238-600: Was established in 1695 (although the post-road to Edinburgh continued to be managed from London); in 1710 the Scottish and English establishments were united by statute . By virtue of the same Act of Parliament (the Post Office (Revenues) Act 1710 ), the functions of the 'general letter office and post office' in the City of London were set out, and the establishment of 'chief letter offices' in Edinburgh, Dublin, New York and
14364-540: Was extended to Scotland and Ireland, and across parts of the British Empire . The GPO was abolished by the Post Office Act 1969 , which transferred its assets to the Post Office , so changing it from a Department of State to a statutory corporation . Responsibility for telecommunications was given to Post Office Telecommunications , the successor of the GPO Telegraph and Telephones department. In 1980,
14490-492: Was far from reliable, so in the 1630s Thomas Witherings set about establishing a regular Dover-Calais packet service. By the end of the century additional packet services had been established between Harwich (off the Yarmouth post road) and Helvoetsluys , between Dover and Ostend / Nieuport , and between Falmouth and Corunna . The packet services were generally arranged by contract with an agent, who would commit to provide
14616-547: Was followed by a counter-bid from GTE . BT sold its stake in MCI to Worldcom in 1998 for £4,159 million. As part of the deal, BT also bought out from MCI its 24.9% interest in Concert Communications, thereby making Concert a wholly owned part of BT. The reaction to the failure of the deal in the City of London was critical of then Chairman Iain Vallance and CEO Peter Bonfield , and the lack of confidence from
14742-408: Was introduced in 1837, and these began to be widely used enabling mail to be sorted in transit; TPO operation was greatly aided by the invention in 1852 of a trackside ' mail-bag apparatus ' which enabled bags to be collected and deposited en route . By the 1860s the Post Office had contracts with around thirty different rail companies. The development of marine steam propulsion inevitably affected
14868-417: Was introduced in 1848, and parcel post in 1883; that same year the term 'letter-carrier' was replaced with ' postman ' in the GPO's official nomenclature. By the 1850s the postal system was described as having become 'universal all over the three kingdoms: no village, however insignificant, being without its receiving-house'. In 1855 a network of 920 post offices and 9,578 sub-offices were in place around
14994-434: Was only after much lobbying that a 'cross-post' between Bristol and Exeter was authorised, in 1698; previously mail between the two cities had to be sent via London). In 1720 Bath postmaster Ralph Allen , who had a vision for improving the situation, took over responsibility for the cross-posts (i.e. routes connecting one post road to another) and bye-posts (connecting to places off the main post roads). He greatly expanded
15120-531: Was replaced by O2 plc in a further share-swap in 2005, and subsequently bought in an agreed takeover by Telefónica for £18 billion and delisted. In 2004, BT launched Consult 21, a consultation organisation that was to aid BT 21CN in the eventual conversion to digital telephony. In 2004, BT was awarded the contract to deliver and manage N3, a secure and fast broadband network for the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) program, on behalf of
15246-433: Was replaced by former Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen . During Bonfield's tenure the share price went from £4 to £15, and back again to £5. Bonfield's salary to 31 March 2001 was a basic of £780,000 (increasing to £820,000) plus a £481,000 bonus and £50,000 of other benefits including pension. He also received a deferred bonus, payable in shares three years' later, of £481,000, and additional bonuses of £3.3 million. mmO2 plc
15372-554: Was slightly damaged by a German bomb in 1917 and in 1940, was set alight during the London Blitz , destroying much of the interior. It reopened in 1943. By the 1950s, the volume of telegraph traffic had declined and the Telegraph Office closed in 1963. In 1984 the new British Telecom Centre was opened on the site. The Post Office commenced its telephone business in 1878, however the vast majority of telephones were initially connected to independently run networks. In December 1880,
15498-548: Was sold as Yell Group to a combination of private equity firms Apax Partners and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst for £2.1 billion. A demerger followed in November 2001, when the former mobile telecommunications business of BT, BT Cellnet, was hived off as a separate business named " mmO2 ". This included BT owned or operated networks in other countries, including BT Cellnet (UK), Esat Digifone (Ireland), and Viag Interkom (Germany). All networks now owned or operated by mmO2 (except Manx Telecom ) were renamed as O2. The de-merger
15624-577: Was split in two with the landline and internet operations were combining with Ocean to become part of BT Ignite. Esat Group was renamed Esat BT in July 2002, and eventually BT Ireland in April 2005. Esat Digifone became part of BT Wireless, before being spun off into a separate independent company mmo2 plc (now Telefónica Europe ). EsatBT installed the first DSL lines in Ireland, to try and compete heavily with former state telecoms company Eircom and operate one exchange, in Limerick . By 2001, BT had
15750-494: Was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific sender to a specific receiver (which was to be of great importance when new forms of communication were invented); it was overseen by a Government minister , the Postmaster General . Over time its remit
15876-414: Was updated approximately annually; in more recent times less often. For example, Code 14 was published in 2016, Code 15 was published in 2021 and came into force in 2022. The Phone-paid Services Authority investigated complaints about phone-paid services. Where it decided that its rules have been broken, it could fine the company responsible, bar access to its services, and even bar the individual behind
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