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.


 * 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
 * Irish Submarine Telegraph Company
 * London District Telegraph Company
 * Submarine Telegraph Company
 * United Kingdom Telegraph Company
 * Universal Private Telegraph Company

Telephone companies

 * Corporation of Glasgow Telephone Department
 * Edison Telephone Company of London Limited
 * Lancashire and Cheshire Telephonic Exchange Company Limited
 * London and Globe Telephone Maintenance Company
 * National Telephone Company
 * Northern District Telephone Company
 * Telephone Company Limited (Bell's Patents)
 * United Telephone Company
 * Western Counties and South Wales Telephone Company

Nationalised successors

 * General Post Office
 * Post Office Telecommunications
 * Post Office Corporation (Telecommunications division)
 * 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