List of historical British telcos
This is a list of Telecommunications companies that either existed prior to British Telecom's privatization, or, if created subsequently to BT's privatization, took over telecoms networks that existed prior to the privatization.
BT and predecessors
These are the early British Telecommunications companies that were nationalized by the British government, the nationalized government organizations that succeeded them, and the post-privatization 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]
- Electric Telegraph Company
- Bonelli's Electric Telegraph Company
- British Electric Telegraph Company
- International Telegraph Company
- Submarine Telegraph Company
- Electric and International Telegraph Company
- British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company
- London District Telegraph Company
- United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Company
- Universal Private Telegraph Company
- Eastern Telegraph Company
- British Telegraph Company
- Irish Submarine Telegraph Company
- English and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company
- Anglo-American Telegraph Company
Telephone companies
- Telephone Company Limited (Bell's Patents)
- Edison Telephone Company of London Limited
- United Telephone Company
- Lancashire and Cheshire Telephonic Exchange Company Limited
- Northern District Telephone Company
- National Telephone Company
- Western Counties and South Wales Telephone Company
- Corporation of Glasgow Telephone Department
- London and Globe Telephone Maintenance Company.
Nationalized successors
- General Post Office
- Post Office Telecommunications
- Post Office Corporation (Telecommunications division)
- British Telecom
Post-privatization
Early BT competitors
- Cable and Wireless
- Mercury Telecommunications
- Kingston Communications
- British Rail Telecommunications
- Energis
- 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