Editing BT Group (section)

=== General Post Office ===
The [[Telegraph Act 1868]] passed the control of all these to the Postal Telegraphs Department of the newly formed [[General Post Office]] (GPO).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.terramedia.co.uk/reference/law/UK_media_law/telecom_laws.htm|publisher=Terramedia|title=UK media law|access-date=2 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170523151027/http://www.terramedia.co.uk/reference/law/UK_media_law/telecom_laws.htm|archive-date=23 May 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The Telegraph Act 1869 granted the GPO a monopoly over communications.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gbps.org.uk/information/sources/acts/1869-08-09_Act-32-and-33-Victoria-cap-73.php|title=Telegraph Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict c.73, 9th August 1869)|publisher=The Great British Philatelic Society|access-date=2 September 2023}}</ref>

With the invention of the [[telephone]] by [[Alexander Graham Bell]] in 1876 the GPO began to provide telephone services from some of its telegraph exchanges. It was confirmed in 1880 that the 1869 Act included telephony even though the telephone had not been invented when the Act was first conceived.<ref>Campbell-Smith, D. Masters of the Post: The Authorised History of the Royal Mail. London: Penguin Books, 2011.p.193.</ref> In 1882, the [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster-General]], Henry Fawcett started to issue licences to operate a telephone service to private businesses and the telephone system grew under the GPO in some areas and private ownership in others. The GPO's main competitor, the [[National Telephone Company]] (NTC), emerged in this market by absorbing other private telephone companies. It controlled most of telephony in Britain before the 1880 ruling on the Telegraph Act 1869 mandated a nationalised service – which was instated in 1911 prior to the absorption of the NTC into the GPO in 1912.<ref>{{cite web |title=Records created and used by the National Telephone Company Limited |url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/50a5d416-8fc1-3a00-9345-9f16d7b07b73 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306111507/https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/50a5d416-8fc1-3a00-9345-9f16d7b07b73 |archive-date=6 March 2019 |access-date=2 March 2019 |publisher=Archives Hub}}</ref>

The trunk network was unified under GPO control in 1896 and the local distribution network in 1912. A few municipally owned services remained outside of GPO control. These were [[Kingston upon Hull]], [[Portsmouth]] and [[Guernsey]]. Hull still retains an independent operator, [[Kingston Communications]], though it is no longer municipally controlled.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kcomplc.com/about-us/our-history/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112125913/http://www.kcomplc.com/about-us/our-history/|url-status=dead|title=KCOM Group: Our History|archivedate=12 November 2013}}</ref>

The assets of the National Telephone Company were acquired by the UK Government to form Post Office Telephones in late 1911.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishtelephones.com/k1.htm|title=Kiosk No. 1 (K1)|publisher=British Telephones|access-date=10 January 2023}}</ref> Post Office engineers in the inter-war period had considerable expertise in both [[telecommunications]] and hearing assistive devices.<ref>{{cite journal |last=McGuire |first=Coreen Anne |date=September 5, 2019 |title=The categorisation of hearing loss through telephony in inter-war Britain |journal=History and Technology |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=138–155 |doi=10.1080/07341512.2019.1652435 |pmc=6817317 |pmid=31708691 |s2cid=202274487}}</ref> Transistors were invented by [[Bell Telephone Laboratories]] in the US in 1948, however it was not until the mid-1960s that a [[transistor]]ised [[oscillator]] was introduced to make the calling sound on a telephone in the UK.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.britishtelephones.com/histuk.htm|title=UK Telephone History|publisher=British Telephones|access-date=10 January 2024}}</ref>