List of historical British telcos
This list of historical British telcos is a list of telecommunications companies that either existed prior to British Telecom's (BT) privatisation, or, if created subsequently to BT's privatisation, took over telecoms networks that existed prior to the privatisation.
BT and predecessors[]
These are the early British telecommunications companies that were nationalised by the British government, the nationalised government organisations that succeeded them, and the privatisation entity that in turn succeeded those.
Telegraph companies[]
Between 1846 and 1868, that is, from the formation of the first company until the announcement of nationalisation, 64 telegraph companies were formed. However, 68% of them failed, and only a handful of them grew to any significant size.[1]
- Anglo-American Telegraph Company
- Bonelli's Electric Telegraph Company
- British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company
- British Electric Telegraph Company
- British Telegraph Company
- Eastern Telegraph Company
- Electric and International Telegraph Company
- Electric Telegraph Company
- English and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company
- International Telegraph Company
- London District Telegraph Company
- Submarine Telegraph Company
- United Kingdom Telegraph Company
- Universal Private Telegraph Company
Telephone companies[]
Nationalised successors[]
- General Post Office
- Post Office Telecommunications
- British Telecom
Post-privatisation[]
- British Telecommunications plc
Early BT competitors[]
- British Rail Telecommunications
- Cable and Wireless
- Energis
- Kingston Communications
- Mercury Telecommunications
- NTL
- Racal Telecom
- Vodafone
See also[]
References[]
External links[]
- Distant Writing - The History of the Telegraph Companies in Britain between 1838 and 1868
- https://web.Archive.org/web/20100527143141/http://www.BTplc.com/Thegroup/BTsHistory/History.htm
Categories:
- Lists of companies of the United Kingdom
- Telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom