1980s

History

1980

Post Office Telecoms becomes British Telecom, the trading identity "Telecom Scotland" is introduced and the Prestel Viewdata comes to Scotland. Scotland achieves a world No. 1 listing when the first, purpose-designed optical fibre submarine cable is laid in Loch Fyne.

1981

British Telecom severs its links with the Post Office, becoming a totally separate public corporation on October 1. Among its first achievements are the introduction of the first cashless, card operated payphone and phones for sale rather than rental. Radiopaging is extended to give a virtually nationwide service.

1982

Mercury enters the fray and the Government announces its intention to sell up to 51% of British Telecom to the public, the first example of the privatisation of a public utility. Kenneth Baker, Ministry for Industry and Information Technology, introduces the Telecommunications Bill, saying: "The Bill creates freedom from Treasury and ministerial control. It also gives freedom to BT to grow, to operate overseas and to make acquisitions. . . the market is growing so quickly that BT can expand only by becoming a free, independent company." The first fibre optic cable in Scotland is laid between Aberdeen and its satellite suburb Kingswells and further fibre projects are planned elsewhere in Aberdeenshire, as well as Perthshire and Argyll. The inland telegram service in Scotland is superseded by telemessages, with overnight delivery, and British Telecom publishes the first national directory of facsimile users' numbers.

1983

British Telecom's first cordless phone brings more customer freedom to Scotland. The Hawk uses a radio to link the mobile extension set with the customer's telephone line at distance of up to 600ft. Display Page, the first British Telecom radiopager with a digital message display, bleeps for the first time. A 10-digit liquid crystal display on the new pager displays the caller's phone number or message.

1984

The Telecommunications Bill, delayed the previous year because of the General Election, receives Royal Assent on April 12, and 50.2% of the new company is offered for sale to the public and employees in November. In the advertising world, the singing and dancing Buzby, which has captured the imagination of the public for the past five years, is finally given the bird. Among the commercials which follow are the "It's for you-hoo" series of ads. Ships using Inmarsat, British Telecom International's maritime satellite system, are able to access a wide range of computers and databases around the world, thanks to BTI's international packet switching service, IPSS. The telephone directory is redesigned and launched as the Phone Book; Trainphone, the first public payphone on a train, is introduced on a trial basis, and the first telephone designed and manufactured by British Telecom is unveiled, in the shape of the one-piece Slimtel.

1985

Cellnet, the British Telecom and Securicor joint venture cellular radio service, is born, replacing the existing radiophone service. The new speaking clock is inaugurated as the voice of Brian Cobby, an assistant supervisor in an exchange in Brighton, replaces Pat Simmons, the voice of the clock for the previous 22 years. The new clock is digital with no moving parts and much more reliable and accurate than before. Integrated Digital Access, British Telecom's first ISDN-type service, makes its first appearance and the first steps to improve the much-maligned payphone service in Scotland begin, with the launch of a UK-wide £160m investment programme which is to transform the service.

1986

Computerisation of directory enquiries is completed, replacing the existing microfiche system, and response times to callers' enquiries become even faster. DIY telephone extensions are permitted for the first time and British Telecom kits are on sale in its Scottish shops. Glasgow Central becomes the first exchange in Greater Glasgow to go digital.

1987

TV personality Noel Edmonds opens the UK's 250th digital exchange at John O'Groats and turns the UXD5 exchange into a multi-coloured talk shop, with calls to entrepreneur Richard Branson and grand prix driver Nigel Mansell. The down-to-earth Virgin boss was exactly that - plans for him to take the call in a hot air balloon 27,000ft above the Atlantic were aborted when bad weather grounded him in the States. Just 18 months earlier Edmonds had opened the UK's 100th rural digital exchange, at Glenurquhart in Inverness-shire. British Telecom went on to invest more than £45 million on exchange conversions in the North of Scotland over the next six years. A star is born and Beattie takes the nation by storm. Maureen Lipman's Jewish granny goes on to star in 32 TV commercials and contributes the word "ology" to the English language. An £87m programme to provide itemised billing for all customers is announced, and British Telecom's research laboratories at Martlesham demonstrate the world's first instantaneous translation of speech by a computer.

1988

The forerunner of Chargecard hits the streets of Scotland in the shape of the British Telecom credit card. With a secret PIN and a unique account number, customers can make calls from any telephone and have the cost added to their next home or office telephone bill.

1989

The Highlands and Islands Initiative, a £20 million joint venture between BT and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, is announced and will bring an advanced digital network to 80% of businesses in the North of Scotland, years before similar rural areas in Europe and many city centres. HIE estimates that over the years the initiative has created more than 1600 jobs. The phone goes up, up and away with the commercial debut on a British Airways 747 of Skyphone, the world's first satellite telephone communications system for airline passengers. British Telecom introduces the world-leading Customer Service Guarantee, which pays compensation to customers if they are without service for more than two clear working days because of BT's failure to install a line on an agreed date or repair a line promptly. Automatic Voice Response is introduced into the directory enquiries service to give a faster response to customers. Actress Julie Berry's voice is digitally recorded speaking all British Telecom's 6000 exchange names, plus the full set of numbers and number combinations. While the AVR equipment is passing the number to the enquiring caller, the operator is already talking to the next customer. ISDN 2, a new advanced service capable of carrying voice, data and pictures at high speed, comes on the market.