Mercury Communications
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| Fate | Merged to Cable & Wireless Communications (October 1996) |
|---|---|
| Successor | Cable & Wireless Communications |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Defunct | 1997 |
Mercury Communications was a national telephone company in the United Kingdom, formed in 1981 as a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, to challenge the then-monopoly of British Telecom (BT). Mercury was the first competitor to BT, and although it proved only moderately successful at challenging their dominance, it was to set the path for new communication companies to attempt the same.
In 1997, Mercury ceased to exist as a brand with its amalgamation into the operations of Cable & Wireless Communications, and totally exited from the telecommunications business by 1999.
The history of telecommunications in United Kingdom starts in 1879, with the establishment of its first telephone exchange in London by The Telephone Company (Bells Patents) Ltd. On 10 March 1881, National Telephone Company (NTC) – a British telephone company – was formed, which later brought together smaller local telephone companies. In 1898, to break the near monopoly held by NTC, the Postmaster General's office who was in charge of licensing new telephone companies issued thirteen new licences. But by 1911, five of the remaining six competitors were taken over by either the General Post Office (GPO) or NTC. Under the Telephone Transfer Act 1911, NTC was taken over by the GPO in 1912, and created a state-run monopoly that would run nearly all telecommunication assets in the UK for the next seventy years.
During the 1920s, there was an increasing competition from companies using radio communications such as Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company. In 1928, it was decided that all telecommunication assets outside of the UK, and within the British Empire, particularly the telegraph companies, should be merged into one operating company. The merged entity was initially known as the 'Imperial and International Communications Ltd', and later in 1934 as Cable & Wireless Limited.
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