Editing BT Group (section)

=== Diversification ===
In the early 1980s, BT Merlin was established as a business unit of British Telecom, at first to sell products such as phone systems to small businesses.<ref name="btjournal198404">{{cite journal |date=April 1984 |title=Merlin spells success |url=https://archive.org/details/btj-198404/page/n61/mode/2up |journal=British Telecom Journal |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=32–34 |access-date=4 July 2024}}</ref> In 1983, the growing "office automation" market was addressed through Merlin-branded desktop computers made by [[International Computers Limited|ICL]], with built-in modems to communicate over the phone network.<ref name="btjournal198307">{{cite journal |date=July 1983 |title=Computer wizardry! |url=https://archive.org/details/btj-198307/page/n67/mode/2up |journal=British Telecom Journal |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=34–35 |access-date=16 January 2021}}</ref> Later products included the [[Merlin Tonto]]<ref name="bteng198504">{{cite journal |date=April 1984 |title=British Telecom Press Notices |url=https://archive.org/details/bte-198504/page/n58/mode/1up |journal=British Telecommunications Engineering |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=57 |access-date=4 July 2024}}</ref> – developed by ICL from the [[Sinclair QL]] home computer – and the [[Merlin M4000]], a rebadged [[Logica]] computer.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=1258|title=Merlin M4000|publisher=Old Computers|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110222065252/https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=1258|archive-date=22 February 2011}}</ref>

In the 1990s, BT entered the Irish telecommunications market through a joint venture with the [[Electricity Supply Board]], the Irish state owned power provider. This venture, entitled Ocean, found its main success through the launch of Ireland's first subscription-free dial-up ISP, oceanfree.net. As a telecoms company it found much less success, mainly targeting corporate customers. BT acquired 100% of this venture in 1999.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/heart-stopping-time-for-ocean-boss-in-setting-up-telecom-company-1.144051|title=Heart-stopping time for Ocean boss in setting up telecom company|date=8 January 1999|newspaper=Irish Times|access-date=2 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043004/https://www.irishtimes.com/business/heart-stopping-time-for-ocean-boss-in-setting-up-telecom-company-1.144051|archive-date=6 March 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

Over the period 1980 to 2000, BT and other providers adopted Internet product strategies when it became commercially advantageous.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Edward |last2=Miller |first2=Chris |last3=Norton |first3=Jim |date=2023 |title=Evolving and Exploiting Packet Switched Networks |url=https://www.ssrn.com/abstract=4595785 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |language=en |doi=10.2139/ssrn.4595785 |issn=1556-5068}}</ref>