BT Group plc (formerly known as British Telecom and still occasionally referred to by that name), is the privatised UK state telecommunications operator. It is the dominant fixed line telecommunications and broadband Internet provider in the United Kingdom. BT operates in more than 170 countries and over a third of its revenue now comes from its Global Services division .

BT Group is the largest communications service provider in the United Kingdom. It is also one of the largest communication companies in the world. The Company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Early years

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 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 absorption 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.

Formation of British Telecom

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 the Post Office. In 1982 BT's monopoly on telecommunications was broken, with the granting of a licence to Mercury Communications.