British telecom

BT Group plc

The current logo for BT, introduced in 2003.
Type	Public limited company
Traded as	:  : BT
Industry	Telecommunications
Predecessor	Electric Telegraph Company General Post Office Post Office Telecommunications
Founded	1969; 48 years ago (1969)
Headquarters	BT Centre London, United Kingdom
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Sir Michael Rake (Chairman) Gavin Patterson (Chief Executive)
Products	Fixedline telephony Mobile telephony Broadband internet Fibre-optic communication Digital television IT services
Revenue	£18.909 billion (2016)
Operating income	£3.506 billion (2016)
Profit	£2.588 billion (2016)
Total assets	$42.946 billion (2016)
Number of employees	102,500 (2016)
Divisions	Business Consumer EE Global Services Wholesale
Subsidiaries	BT Ireland BT Italia Openreach Plusnet
Website	www.btplc.com

BT Group plc (trading as BT) is a holding company which owns British Telecommunications plc, a British multinational telecommunications services company with head offices in London, United Kingdom. It has operations in around 180 countries.

BT's origins date back to the founding of the Electric Telegraph Company in 1846 which developed a nationwide communications network. In 1912, the General Post Office, a government department, became the monopoly telecoms supplier in the United Kingdom. The Post Office Act of 1969 led to the GPO becoming a public corporation. British Telecommunications, trading as British Telecom, was formed in 1980, and became independent of the Post Office in 1981. British Telecommunications was privatised in 1984, becoming British Telecommunications plc, with some 50 percent of its shares sold to investors. The Government sold its remaining stake in further share sales in 1991 and 1993. BT has a primary listing on the , a secondary listing on the , and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

BT controls a number of large subsidiaries. BT Global Services division supplies telecoms services to corporate and government customers worldwide, and its BT Consumer division supplies telephony, broadband, and subscription television services in Great Britain to around 18 million customers. BT announced in February 2015 that it had agreed to acquire EE for £12.5 billion, and received final regulatory approval from the Competition and Markets Authority on 15 January 2016. The transaction was completed on 29 January 2016.

BT's origins date back to the establishment of the first telecommunications companies in Britain. Among them was the first commercial telegraph service, the Electric Telegraph Company, established in 1846. As these companies amalgamated and were taken over or collapsed, the remaining companies were transferred to state control under the Post Office in 1912. These companies were merged and rebranded as British Telecom.