British multinational telecommunications holding company
BT Group plc
Formerly
British Telecom
Company type
Public
Traded as
LSE: BT.A
FTSE 100 Component
Industry
Telecommunications
Predecessor
Electric Telegraph Company
General Post Office
Post Office Telecommunications
Founded
18 June 1846; 177 years ago (1846-06-18) (foundation of the Electric Telegraph Company) 1 January 1912; 112 years ago (1912-01-01) (National Telephone Company system take-over under the General Post Office) 1 October 1969; 54 years ago (1969-10-01) (as a public corporation under the Post Office) 1 October 1981; 42 years ago (1981-10-01) (as a public corporation under the British Telecom brand) 1 April 1984; 40 years ago (1984-04-01) (as a private company)
Headquarters
London
,
England, UK
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Adam Crozier (Chairman)
Allison Kirkby (CEO)
Simon Lowth (Group Finance Director)
Products
Fixed-line telephony
Mobile telephony
Broadband internet
Fibre-optic communication
Digital television
IT and network services
Home security
Telecommunications equipment
Revenue
£20.669 billion (2023)[1]
Operating income
£3.175 billion (2023)[1]
Net income
£1.905 billion (2023)[1]
Total assets
£52.75 billion (2023)[1]
Owner
Patrick Drahi (24.5%)[2]
Deutsche Telekom (12%)[3]
Number of employees
98,800 (2023)[1]
Divisions
BT Business
BT Consumer
BT Digital
BT Networks
Subsidiaries
BT Ireland
BT Italia
EE
Openreach
Plusnet
Website
bt.com
BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, broadband and mobile services in the UK, and also provides subscription television and IT services.[4]
BT's origins date back to the founding in 1846 of the Electric Telegraph Company, the world's first public telegraph company, which developed a nationwide communications network. BT Group as it came to be started in 1912, when the General Post Office, a government department, took over the system of the National Telephone Company[5] becoming the monopoly telecoms supplier in the United Kingdom. The Post Office Act of 1969 led to the GPO becoming a public corporation, Post Office Telecommunications.[6] The British Telecom brand was introduced in 1980, and became independent of the Post Office in 1981, officially trading under the name. British Telecom 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 holds a royal warrant and has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
BT controls a number of large subsidiaries. Its BT Enterprise division supplies telecoms services to corporate and government customers worldwide,[7] and its BT Consumer division supplies telephony, broadband, and subscription television services in the United Kingdom to around 18 million customers.[8]
^ abcde"Annual Report 2023" (PDF). BT Group plc. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
^Mark Sweney (23 May 2023). "French billionaire Patrick Drahi ups BT stake to more than 24%". The Guardian.
^"Deutsche Telekom Has Unfinished Business With BT". Bloomberg.com. 3 March 2023. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
^"Our company". BT Group plc. Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
^"1912 – 1968 – The history of telecommunications – Our history – About BT | BT Plc". bt.com. Archived from the original on 19 January 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
^"1969 – 1980 – The history of telecommunications – Our history – About BT | BT Plc". bt.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
^"BT Global Services". BT Group plc. Archived from the original on 10 August 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
^"BT Consumer". BT Group. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
BTGroup plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England...
BT Communications (Ireland) Limited is a telecommunications and internet company in Ireland. It is a subsidiary of BTGroup plc. The company was founded...
up BT, bT, bt, or .bt in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. BT or Bt may refer to: BT (musician) (born Brian Transeau), American electronic musician BT (album)...
and the chief executive (CEO) BTGroup. In July 2023, she was publicly named to succeed Philip Jansen as CEO of BTGroup, effective 1 February 2024. Kirkby...
The BT Tower is a grade II listed communications tower in Fitzrovia, London, England, owned by BTGroup. It was also known as the GPO Tower and the Post...
BT Consumer is the main retail division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BTGroup that provides fixed-line, mobile, broadband and digital...
BT Broadband is a broadband service offered by BT Consumer; a division of BTGroup in the United Kingdom. It was formerly known as BT Total Broadband...
service provided by BTGroup for the UK. It's predecessor, BT Wi-fi was established following a rebranding of the former BT Openzone and BT Fon, bringing both...
BT Global is a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BTGroup that provides global security, cloud and networking services to multinational...
The 2022 BTGroup strikes were an industrial dispute between the telecommunications provider BT and members of the Communication Workers Union over pay...
BT Enterprise was a short-lived division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BTGroup that provided products and services to organisations in...
BT Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) provided by BT Consumer; a division of BTGroup in the United Kingdom that was launched in March...
TV (formerly BT Vision and BT TV) is a subscription IPTV service offered by EE; a brand of British telecommunications company BTGroup, and was originally...
Openreach Limited is a company wholly owned by BTGroup plc, that maintains the telephone cables, ducts, cabinets and exchanges that connect nearly all...
BT Wholesale and Ventures was a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BTGroup that provided voice, broadband, data, hosted communication...
channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports and the BTGroup. It is part of the TNT Sports group of channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and is...
BT Retail was a former division of BTGroup that split in 2013 into two divisions. See: BT Consumer BT Business "BT Retail splits into two businesses"...
way since 2004, of the UK telecommunications company BTGroup plc. It was intended to move BT's telephone network from the AXE/System X Public Switched...
announced as the new CEO of BT with effect from 1 February 2019, succeeding Gavin Patterson. During his tenure as CEO of BTGroup, an industrial dispute began...
completed in April 2020. Additionally, in August 2019 BTGroup sold BT Fleet Solutions to Aurelius. BT Fleet solutions was renamed to Rivus Fleet Solutions...
executive of Severn Trent, and formerly the chief executive of Openreach, a BTGroup business. Olivia was raised in Harrogate. Her parents, who were originally...
Revenue Officer of Salesforce [citation needed] and Chief Executive of BTGroup from 2013–19. He was born in Altrincham in Greater Manchester in 1967,...
BT Business and Public Sector was a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BTGroup that provided fixed-line, mobile, broadband and IT services...
Global Information
£20.669 billion (2023)[1] 
£3.175 billion (2023)[1]