British Telecom

British Telecom

In 1979, the Conservatives decided that telecommunications should be fully separated from the Post Office. Hence, the British Telecom brand was introduced in 1980. On 1 October 1981, this became the official name of Post Office Telecommunications, which became a state-owned corporation independent of the Post Office under the provisions of the British Telecommunications Act 1981. In 1982, BT's monopoly on telecommunications was broken with the granting of a licence to Mercury Communications.