British Telecom

British Telecommunications Group plc (commonly known as 'British Telecom' or BT) is the privatised former British state telecommunications operator. BT owns and runs the telephone exchanges and [local loop]? connections for the vast majority of British fixed-line telephones.

As the dominant operator in British telecommunications, BT's businesses are operated under special government regulation by the British telecoms regulator Oftel.

(Trying to work out how to record the timeline: National Telephone Company -> GPO -> The Post Office and British Telecom -> BT -> BT and mmO2... ?)

(The Post Office is now the privatised company Consignia.)

BT Group has four main businesses:

• BT Ignite: retail broadband networks
• BTopenworld: retail Internet
• BT Retail: retail telecoms
• BT Wholesale: wholesale telecoms network

The former mobile telecommunications business of BT ("BT Cellnet") has now been demerged into a separate business named "mm02?".

See also:

• Local loop unbundling, [System X]?

External links:

• http://www.groupbt.com/
• http://www.o2.com/
• [BT's 'Telecommunications History' webpage]

/Talk?