List of historical British telcos


This is a list of Telecommunications companies that either existed prior to British Telecom's privatization, or, if created subsequently to BT's privatization, took over telecoms networks that existed prior to the privatization.

BT and predecessors

These are the early British Telecommunications companies that were nationalized by the British government, the nationalized government organizations that succeeded them, and the post-privatization 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.