British Telecom started out as the GPO and later became Post Office Telephones in 1969. Although the GPO was originally a postal company (the Royal Mail) (see p-mail), the telephonic offshoot Post Office Telephones developed an identity separate to the GPO and later became British Telecom (BT).

Then during the Cold War, British Telecom had very much the air of an Orwell's 1984 Big Brother system of the type paranoids fear. You weren't even allowed to own your own phone but had to rent one that was legally the property of the corporate authority. Later though, BT no longer having a state enforced monopoly, the company gradually began to reform, in some ways like the Soviet Union making brave efforts to cease to be a communist authoritarian regime and become a 21st Century capitalist nation. Now in the zero-zeros decade, British Telecom has become a proper company which is competitive in the international communications business. It is good to see so many reforms and improvements to the service, and the new way of doing things is very good news for the customer. And although bits of the old "that's the rules and there's nothing you can do about it" way of thinking shows through now and then, it has to be said that British Telecom has made big improvements and will hopefully continue to provide a better and more flexible service to the customer.

Special points of note, some of them to be seen on the page on this site titled "PHONE":

* Dial 1471 to find out who phoned you last. Dial 141 to hide your number from people you phone, but don't forget that this does not hide it from the operator, emergency services, etc.

* Dial *411# to turn on CHARGE ADVICE and #411# to turn off CHARGE ADVICE. [find out more]. Charge advice is a free service (well done British Telecom!) which phones you back after you've made a call and tells you how much the call has cost. Knowing how much calls cost soon saves a lot of money. BT doesn't make a big show about this because the measurement is not 100% accurate and is sometimes up to five pence out. More about this

* BT mobile phones. Genie Mobile is a company which is part of British Telecom. More about this here

Also see BT Mobile Home Plan and BT Mobile Sense, which is about managing your mobile phone online! Plus, BT Cellnet Connected for e-mails by mobile phone.

* 192 Directory Enquiries: Should be free. Sadly this is no longer free. But there are ways around this... see 192 Directory Enquiries

* BT Text Message to Home Phone. A fun idea, but widely open to misuse. If you'd like to opt out of BT Text Messaging or set a sensible curfew, see BT Text Message Control

* Odd Pricing policy. Days such as Easter and August Bank Holiday Monday are charged as business work days rather than weekends. You have to remember this when making calls on these holiday days. Using the *411# / #411# feature reveals the truth of this. I have suggested to BT that they make these nominal weekend days and make a big fuss about it. It would be excellent P.R.! More here about BT Holiday pricing

* Expensive 0870 numbers are said to be "National Rate" except that this is no longer how much most UK National rate calls cost. They are charged at the OLD rate, leaving 0870 numbers being deplorably Expensive 0870 Numbers

* BT Fusion was stated to be the latest thing! See BT Fusion to see if there's any developments on that.

* INTERNET services. See BT Internet. BT as an ISP, some very good things about this, and some that are not so good, like for example it being near-impossible to talk to technical support.

* 2001/02/28 WELL DONE TO BT for making Multiphones FREE for surfing the Internet and for E-mail. More about this here. This is a very good sign of generosity by a big company, and it is very good for Public Relations because people will talk. And you know IT'S GOOD TO TALK.

* 2005/09 WELL DONE TO BT for introducing free BT Privacy which gives CALLER DISPLAY free (so you can tell who is phoning you before you pick up the phone) as well as giving you the option of being included in the Telephone Preference Service.

Thanks BT! Well Done to British Telecom for their kind generosity to the affiliate at Xmas 2004! It's nice to be appreciated!