(formerly '''British Telecommunications plc''') which trades as '''BT''' (pronounced ''Bee tee'') (also previously as '''British Telecom''' and is still commonly known as such amongst the general public) is the
Privatised UK state
Telecommunications operator. It is the dominant fixed line
Telecommunication s and
Broadband Internet provider in the United Kingdom.
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BT operates in more than 170 countries and almost a third of its revenue now comes from its Global Services division.
BT Group is currently the largest communications service provider in the United Kingdom and in Europe. It is also one of the largest communication companies in the world.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
BT runs the
Telephone Exchange s, trunk network and
Local Loop connections for the vast majority of British fixed-line telephones. Currently BT is responsible for approximately 28 million telephone lines in the UK. Apart from
Kingston Communications , which serves Kingston-upon-Hull, BT is the only UK telecoms operator to have a ''Universal Service Obligation'' (USO) which means it must provide a fixed telephone line to any address in the UK. It is also obliged to provide public call boxes.
BT's businesses are operated under special government regulation by the British telecoms regulator
Ofcom (formerly
Oftel ). BT has been found to have Significant Market Power in some markets following Market Reviews by Ofcom. In these markets, BT is required to comply with additional obligations such as meeting reasonable requests to supply services and not to discriminate.
As well as continuing to provide service in those traditional areas in which BT has an obligation to provide services or is closely regulated, BT has expanded into more profitable products and services where there is less regulation. These are principally,
Broadband internet service and
Bespoke solutions in telecommunications and
Information Technology .
BT Group is organised into the following business divisions:
- : Retail telecoms to consumers
- : Wholesale telecoms core trunk network
- : fenced-off wholesale division, tasked with ensuring that all rival operators have equality of access to BT's own local network
- )
- : consultancy and internal IT. There is some overlap with BT Global Services. R&D functions are no longer handled by BT Exact.
- : handles security, research and development, and other functions for BT Group Plc such as legal services
From
1 July 2007 two additional divisions will be put in place:-
- will take responsibility from BT Wholesale for the roll-out and maintenance of the group's new IP based fixed-line network, known as 21C.
- will pull together IT designers from BT Retail, BT Wholesale and BT Global Services and OneIT to design services on the 21C network. 1
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