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Telephone
services in almost all of the UK were, until 1981, provided
by the Post Office, which was a government department
until 1969 when it was established as a state public
corporation. In 1981, the postal and telecommunications
services of the Post Office became the responsibility
of two separate corporations, with British Telecommunications
– under the trading name of British Telecom –
taking over the telecommunications business.
As
a result of the Telecommunications Act 1984, British
Telecommunications plc was incorporated in England and
Wales under the Companies Acts 1948 to 1981 on 1 April
1984 as a public limited company wholly owned by the
UK Government. The transfer of property, rights and
liabilities of the corporation to British Telecommunications
plc was made on 6 August 1984.
In November 1984, the UK Government offered 3,012 million
ordinary shares (50.2% of the total issued ordinary
shares) to the public. The share sale was fully subscribed.
British Telecom shares made their debut on the London
Stock Exchange on 3 December 1984. From April 1991,
British Telecommunications plc traded as BT.
In December 1991, the UK Government sold over half its
remaining shares in BT, retaining a holding of about
22%. It sold this residual holding in July 1993. Subsequently,
in September 1997, the UK Government redeemed at par
a special rights redeemable preference share to which
certain special rights attached.
In 1985, Cellnet was launched as a joint venture between
British Telecom and Securicor, which held 40% of the
company. BT acquired full control of Cellnet (now O2
UK – part of mmO2 plc) by acquiring
Securicor’s minority holding in November 1999.
In January 2000, BT and AT&T established Concert
as a 50/50 joint venture serving customers around the
world and transferred their trans-border assets and
operations to Concert. On 1 April 2002, BT completed
the unwind of Concert, which involved the return of
Concert’s businesses, customer accounts and networks
to the two parent companies.
BT Group was formed when the mmO2 business,
comprising what had been BT’s mobile activities
in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and the Republic
of Ireland, was demerged on 19 November 2001. British
Telecommunications plc’s shares ceased trading
on the London, New York and Tokyo stock exchanges on
16 November 2001. BT Group plc’s shares commenced
trading on the London and New York stock exchanges on
19 November 2001.
BT Group was incorporated in England and Wales on 30
March 2001 as Newgate Telecommunications Limited with
the registered number 4190816. The company changed its
name to BT Group plc on 11 September 2001. Following
the demerger of mmO2 in November 2001, the
continuing activities of BT were transferred to BT Group.
BT Group’s registered office address is 81 Newgate
Street, London EC1A 7AJ.
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