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British Telecom has won a 15-year broadcasting licence from the Independent Television Commission, which could involve forming partnerships to distribute TV programmes. 06-Mar-2002 British Telecom is planning to rationalise and modernise its 150 call centres, in order to create a smaller network of "world-class" centres and save £150m a year by 2004. 15-Feb-2002 British Telecom is planning to sell off a stake in its vans business, which owns 58,000 vehicles, and wants to bring in a partner from the venture capital or banking sector. 12-Feb-2002 British Telecom is to close its directory inquiries call centre in Durham with the loss of 120 jobs, and similar sites will close in Leamington Spa, Hemmel Hempstead, Truro, Irvine and Glasgow. 30-Jan-2002 British Telecom is planning to shed several hundred of the 1,500 jobs at its BT Ignite business services division in Germany, as part of an overhaul of its European operations. 30-Jan-2002 British Telecom is to create a further 30 jobs at its Internet Designers Limited venture in Belfast, in order to develop a range of internet-related software and computer technologies. 18-Jan-2002 British Telecom and Excite are closing the Excite UK internet portal with the loss of up to 48 London-based staff, having failed to find a buyer. 18-Dec-2001 Marconi is to invest £15m in the production of 28,000 internet-enabled payphone terminals, which will be installed and managed by British Telecom at sites around the country. 13-Dec-2001 British Telecom is to invest £12m in a pilot project offering broadband internet access in remote parts of Cornwall, and will supply hardware and business support as part of an all-inclusive package. 11-Dec-2001 British Telecom is to shed a further 4,000 jobs in its retail division by 2003, as part of a strategy to reduce costs by £650m. 05-Dec-2001 British Telecom is to transfer about 350 employees to Telereal, the joint venture between Land Securities and the Pears Group that is acquiring BT's property portfolio for £2.38bn. 27-Nov-2001 British Telecom is to close its directory inquiries centre in York in March, which will involve the loss of 60 temporary jobs and the transfer of 35 permanent staff to the customer services department. 08-Nov-2001 British Telecom is to test a new broadband wireless technology called mesh radio in partnership with Cambridge-based Radiant Networks, which could be used to deliver high-speed internet and entertainment services to homes and offices. 07-Nov-2001 British Telecom has applied for a licence from the Independent Television Commission to provide TV services such as video-on-demand through ADSL phone lines. 05-Nov-2001 British Telecom is to sell its Apollo call centre in Belfast to HCL Technologies of India for £9m, which will involve the transfer of up to 460 staff. 30-Oct-2001 British Telecom is to set up a £90m BT Ignite data centre at the Celtic Gateway development in Cardiff Bay, which will provide website hosting services and employ 200 people by the end of next year. 15-Oct-2001 British Telecom is in talks to outsource its accounting and financial operations, which would involve the transfer of about 500 Birmingham and London-based staff to Xansa of Hemel Hempstead. 05-Oct-2001 British Telecom and Deutsche Telekom have announced plans to jointly develop third-generation mobile networks, in order to save up to £2.5bn in capital expenditure. 24-Sep-2001 British Telecom is considering plans to open up its BT Fleet Partners garage network to offer servicing and fleet management to other companies, and is seeking a partner to help with vehicle sourcing and disposals. 28-Aug-2001 British Telecom is planning to shed up to 1,000 jobs in its BT Wireless mobile phone business, with most of the cuts taking place in Ireland and the Netherlands. 27-Aug-2001 British Telecom and Gilat of the US are to introduce a high-speed satellite internet service in rural areas of Scotland and Northern Ireland from November, which will require the installation of satellite dishes. 31-Jul-2001 British Telecom is considering plans to open luxury warehouse-style apartments in a number of unused telephone exchanges, starting with the top three floors of the Marylebone exchange in London. 27-Jul-2001 British Telecom is planning to separate its fraud protection business into an independent company called Azure, which will have annual sales of about £500m and 200 staff. 13-Jul-2001 British Telecom is linking up with BSkyB and ITV to offer bundled TV and telephone packages in competition with cable companies. 11-Jul-2001 British Telecom is selling its 33% stake in Rogers Wireless, the Canadian mobile phone operator, to AT&T for £269m. 04-Jul-2001 British Telecom has confirmed plans to sell its UK property portfolio to a joint venture between Land Securities Trillium and William Pears Group for £2.3bn. 14-Jun-2001 British Telecom is forming a partnership with Deutsche Telekom to develop third generation mobile networks in the UK and Germany, which will involve their BT Wireless and One-2-One subsidiaries sharing capital expenditure. 13-Jun-2001 British Telecom has dropped plans to set up an 800-seat call centre in Nantgarw near Caerphilly, and an alternative occupier is now being sought. 06-Jun-2001 British Telecom is considering plans to use its telephone network to deliver TV programmes and internet services into homes, which would challenge the market dominance of the leading cable TV companies. 29-May-2001 British Telecom is to scrap the Cellnet mobile phone brand in order to develop a new international identity in the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. 24-May-2001 BSkyB has bought British Telecom's 19.9% stake in the Open interactive TV service for £387m. 16-May-2001 British Telecom has announced restructuring plans that will involve selling its Yell directories business, demerging its BT Wireless mobiles business, raising £5.9bn in a rights issue and renaming the rest of the group Future BT. 11-May-2001 British Telecom is to close its Directory Enquiries centre in Stoke-on-Trent in October, with the loss of 125 jobs. 07-May-2001 British Telecom is planning to vacate its City of London headquarters over the next two years, and up to 500 staff will be relocated to smaller offices. 03-May-2001 British Telecom and Scitex are to close their VIO Worldwide application service provider joint venture for financial reasons, which will affect 58 staff worldwide. 19-Apr-2001 British Telecom is considering plans to sell up to 58,000 vehicles to a fleet leasing operator, in order to accelerate its break-up strategy and focus on its core telecoms business. 11-Apr-2001 British Telecom is in discussions to sell its Yell yellow pages business to a consortium that includes Apax Partners for more than £3bn. 05-Apr-2001 City of Edinburgh Council and British Telecom are to launch a 10-year £150m strategy to create a "Smart City", which will involve BT becoming the council's partner in developing new ways to deliver services. 02-Apr-2001 British Telecom is to relocate a call centre from Oxford's Paradise Street to a new building on the Oxford Business Park in June, and 40 of the 76 staff will move to the new site. 01-Mar-2001 British Telecom is to reduce the workforce in its BTopenworld internet business by 20%, which will involve transferring 200 staff to other parts of the company. 14-Feb-2001 British Telecom is seeking a partner for its telemarketing centre in Belfast, which employs more than 600 staff. 08-Feb-2001 British Telecom is to acquire the remaining 49.5% stake in Esat Digiphone, the Irish mobile phone network, from Telenor of Norway for £810m. 07-Feb-2001 British Telecom has opened a new £5m data centre in May Street, Belfast, which will supply web hosting and other internet services to companies throughout Northern Ireland. 01-Feb-2001 British Telecom is to create about 100 new jobs in Scotland in order to roll-out its ADSL high-speed internet service, and is using Hampshire-based recruitment specialist White & Nunn to find 545 engineers throughout the UK. 26-Jan-2001 British Telecom has agreed to open up more of its telephone exchanges to competition, in order to enable rival operators to install high-speed internet access equipment at more profitable locations. 19-Jan-2001 British Telecom is to set up a new call centre in Fort William with the creation of 200 jobs over the next year. 17-Jan-2001 British Telecom has announced plans for the sale and leaseback of its £2bn property portfolio, and discussions are taking place with companies interested in acquiring the estate of 7,500 buildings. 05-Jan-2001 British Telecom has bought out its mobile phone partner in Germany in a £1bn deal that involves Telenor of Norway selling its 10% stake in Viag Interkom. 02-Jan-2001 British Telecom is forming an alliance with IncuVest of the US to commercially exploit new technologies at the Brightstar incubator near Ipswich, and a new research facility will be established to sort through BT's portfolio of patents. 06-Dec-2000 British Telecom and United News & Media are looking to sell their LineOne joint venture, which could lead to a £180m deal with a rival internet service provider. 01-Dec-2000 British Telecom is planning to float up to 25% of Yell, its Yellow Pages directories business, in order to raise about £1bn. 27-Nov-2000 British Telecom is to create a further 60 jobs at its new Manpower-operated call centre in Alness, Easter Ross. 20-Nov-2000 British Telecom is to set up a technology incubator arm called Brightstar, based at Adastral Park near Ipswich, in order to encourage the development of an entrepreneurial culture within the group. 20-Nov-2000 British Telecom is linking up with Crown Castle of the US to invest £200m in the installation of transmitters on the roofs of 4,000 BT exchanges, in order to support third generation mobile networks. 17-Nov-2000 British Telecom has announced plans to split itself in two, sell £10bn worth of subsidiaries, abandon plans to expand outside Western Europe and Japan and shed a further 5,000 jobs. 10-Nov-2000 British Telecom is planning to increase its stake in Blu from 20% to 30%, in order to increase its presence in the Italian mobile phone market. 06-Oct-2000 British Telecom and AT&T of the US are in discussions to merge their business services divisions, which would include the Ignite international data operation. 18-Sep-2000 British Telecom has announced plans to set up a network of 10,000 automatic teller machines that will enable people to top up pre-paid mobile phone cards and buy electronic currency to spend on the internet. 11-Sep-2000 British Telecom has sold its aeronautical and maritime communications division to Stratos Global of Canada for £157m, as part of a strategy to reduce debt by selling non-core operations. 04-Sep-2000 British Telecom is forming a marketing alliance with NetStore, in which it will offer NetStore's computer back-up services to small and medium-sized companies. 18-Aug-2000 British Telecom is to double its stake in the Viag Interkom telecoms joint venture in Germany by acquiring a further 45% from Eon for £4.4bn, as part of a strategy to convert minority interests into controlling stakes. 17-Aug-2000 British Telecom has dropped plans to set up a £1bn network of internet co-location centres across Europe, due to shareholder concerns about the group's rising debt. 14-Aug-2000 British Telecom is considering plans to split off its UK network business into a separate company, in order to focus on its UK retail and overseas assets and escape some of the new regulatory measures that have been imposed on the group. 28-Jul-2000 British Telecom is linking up with British Airways, British Midland, Virgin Atlantic and the big charter airlines to bid for the privatisation of the UK's air traffic control service, in a consortium called The Airline Group. 13-Jul-2000 British Telecom is forming a joint venture with Andersen Consulting to provide human resources services to large companies via the internet. 23-Jun-2000 British Telecom is to recruit a further 200 staff at its new £6m call centre in Lincoln, which already employs 400 workers. 23-Jun-2000 British Telecom has confirmed plans to close a directory enquiries call centre in Belfast, but will offer alternative employment to the 200 staff. 16-Jun-2000 British Telecom has confirmed plans to set up a headquarters for its Btopenworld internet business at Martlesham Heath near Ipswich, in a £12m project with Alcatel, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, Lucent Technologies and Newbridge Networks. 06-Jun-2000 British Telecom has been ordered by Oftel to allow rival operators to provide unmetered internet access to customers, by giving them access to BT's local network at wholesale unmetered rates. 30-May-2000 British Telecom has announced plans to set up a new £1.8m call centre in Londonderry, with the creation of 160 jobs. 11-May-2000 British Telecom is set to win a £500m 10-year contract for the electronic modernisation of Liverpool City Council, including call centres, revenue and benefits services. 09-May-2000 British Telecom is considering plans to sell off its network construction business, but may opt for a flotation or joint venture instead. 04-May-2000 British Telecom is planning to open a new call centre at Alness in the Highlands, with the creation of up to 300 jobs. 02-May-2000 Vodafone AirTouch, TIW of Canada, British Telecom, One-2-One and Orange have won the five licences to launch third-generation mobile phone services, and each of them must now build a network that can be used by at least 80% of the population. 28-Apr-2000 British Telecom is planning to contract out the management of its 8,500 UK buildings, and the £800m 10-year contract is expected to be awarded to a consortium of Carillion, Reliance Security and Haden Management. 28-Apr-2000 British Telecom is to create four separate businesses in high growth areas - Yell for directories and e-commerce, BTopenworld for mass market internet, Ignite for broadband transmission, and BT Wireless for mobile services. 14-Apr-2000 British Telecom is to close its operator centre in Bedminster next year, with the loss of up to 150 jobs. 10-Apr-2000 British Telecom and 3i have announced plans to spin-out a new company to market network performance management software developed at BT's Adastral Park facility in Ipswich. 07-Apr-2000 British Telecom and AT&T have announced plans to invest £1.25bn setting up 30 web hosting centres around the world over the next three years, including sites in Cardiff, Birmingham, Bletchley and St Albans. 06-Apr-2000 British Telecom is linking up with Microsoft and AT&T to develop software for mobile phone systems, and will contribute human resources and testing facilities to the project. 31-Mar-2000 British Telecom is said to be planning to relocate almost 4,000 employees to two new offices at Leavesden Park near Watford and City Place at Gatwick, as part of a strategy to move staff away from central London. 20-Mar-2000 Bank of Scotland is forming an alliance with British Telecom to offer online banking and e-business services to small and medium-sized companies. 17-Mar-2000 British Telecom is planning to build a £8m call centre at the former Nantgarw Colliery near Cardiff, with the creation of 800 jobs. 15-Mar-2000 British Telecom is to invest £160m in the launch of its Genie mobile internet service in 15 countries, in partnership with more than 30 companies. 10-Mar-2000 British Telecom is forming an alliance with Yes Television to trial an interactive TV service in London, using ADSL technology. 08-Mar-2000 British Telecom has appointed Lucent Technologies to supply multimedia call centres for its corporate customers, and the services will be immediately available through BT Business Information Systems and Syncordia eCRM Solutions. 28-Feb-2000 British Telecom is forming an alliance with Panasonic to develop a system that will enable people to download music from the internet via their mobile phones. 24-Feb-2000 British Telecom is said to be planning a major reorganisation in order to improve its stock market rating, which is expected to involve a shake up of senior management. 22-Feb-2000 British Telecom is forming an alliance with Corning to develop photonics technology for the high-capacity transmission of information, and its Photonics Technology Research Centre will be transferred to the US group for £39m. 15-Feb-2000 British Telecom is planning to shed 3,000 administration jobs over the next nine months, in a cost-cutting programme expected to save £140m a year. 03-Feb-2000 British Telecom is forming an alliance with two US internet companies - VerticalNet and Internet Capital Group - to invest £141m in new business-to-business web sites. 02-Feb-2000 British Telecom is forming a joint venture with Banco Popular in order to launch an internet-based shopping mall in Spain. 21-Jan-2000 British Telecom has acquired the remaining 50% of Ocean Communications of Ireland for £130m, in order to clear the way for its takeover of rival phone company Esat. 20-Jan-2000 British Telecom has launched a £1.5bn recommended takeover offer for Esat, the Irish telecoms group. 12-Jan-2000 British Telecom has bought 55 yellow-page directories from Sprint Publishing & Advertising for £27m, in order to strengthen the presence of its Yellow Book USA subsidiary in the Chicago area. 06-Jan-2000 British Telecom and Vodafone AirTouch are in negotiations to acquire joint control of Airtel, the Spanish mobile phone group, rather than compete against each other for a larger stake. 03-Jan-2000 British Telecom is planning to offer flat-rate unmetered internet access to consumers and small businesses, through the launch of a new service called SurfTime. 08-Dec-1999 Freeserve is forming an alliance with BT Cellnet to provide internet-based information services on mobile phones, including sport, entertainment and financial services. 03-Dec-1999 British Telecom has been told by Oftel to open its local network to competitors supplying high-speed digital services by July 2001. 01-Dec-1999 British Telecom has launched a recruitment drive to find 400 staff for its telemarketing centre in Warrington. 17-Nov-1999 British Telecom is planning to restructure its joint venture with Viag in order to improve its position in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and has also announced a joint venture with LookSmart of the US to develop internet portal services. 11-Nov-1999 British Telecom is to close its operator assistance centre in Blackburn by August 2001, with the loss of up to 200 jobs. 10-Nov-1999 British Telecom is to spend £100m over the next two years adapting its network to handle internet calls more easily, and has also announced the launch of a new tariff that will allow internet service providers to offer a flat monthly fee. 10-Nov-1999 British Telecom is to create a separate division for its mobile phone and paging operations in order to gain regulatory approval to acquire full ownership of Cellnet. 06-Nov-1999 British Telecom is to close its call centre at Humberstone Road in Leicester in 2001, but the 340 staff are expected to be transferred to other facilities nearby. 05-Nov-1999 British Telecom has relocated 600 technicians to London and the Thames Valley to cope with a surge in demand for high-speed digital links, and is looking to recruit a further 200. 05-Nov-1999 British Telecom is to close the directory inquiries switchboard next to the Gateshead MetroCentre as well as the operators call centre in Newcastle's Carliol Square, and the 300 workers will be transferred to other sites. 04-Nov-1999 British Telecom is said to be planning to set up a new call centre in Londonderry with the creation of 500 jobs. 15-Oct-1999 British Telecom is linking up with Microsoft to develop hand-held communications devices that will enable consumers to access information while on the move. 15-Oct-1999 British Telecom is planning to set up a joint venture with FVC of the US to launch a low-cost video conferencing service in Europe. 12-Oct-1999 British Telecom is forming an alliance with AT&T to link their wireless telecoms operations around the world, which should result in lower prices for travellers in 150 countries. 17-Sep-1999 British Telecom has taken on 80 more permanent staff at its telemarketing centre in Bristol to cope with an increase in workload, and similar measures are being taken at sites in Warrington, Newcastle, Doncaster and Glasgow. 16-Sep-1999 British Telecom is planning to set up a call centre in Lincoln to handle residential fault calls, with the creation of 600 jobs. 15-Sep-1999 British Telecom has acquired a 32% stake in Inet, the Italian internet service provider, at a cost of £13m. 11-Sep-1999 British Telecom is planning to conduct all of its procurement activities on the internet in order to reduce the average cost of transactions from $80 to $8 and save $1bn a year. 11-Sep-1999 British Telecom is acquiring Yellow Book USA for £430m, and could go on to set up a global franchise in the telephone directories business. 27-Aug-1999 British Telecom is planning to move into central Europe later this year, in preparation for the liberalisation of the telecoms markets in Hungary and the Czech Republic. 16-Aug-1999 British Telecom has linked up with AT&T to acquire a one-third stake in the Canadian cell phone company Rogers Cantel Mobile Communications for £581m, and BT is also acquiring a stake in AT&T Canada at a cost of £249m. 06-Aug-1999 British Telecom is linking up with the Royal Bank of Scotland, Scottish Telecom and NTL to set up a Scottish internet exchange in Edinburgh, which will rival existing facilities in London and Manchester. 04-Aug-1999 British Telecom has confirmed plans to launch ADSL high-speed internet access, and will start by converting 400 exchanges that cover about 6m homes and businesses. 30-Jul-1999 British Telecom has taken full control of BT Cellnet by acquiring the remaining 40% from Securicor for £3.1bn, which will enable BT to bid for one of the next-generation mobile phone licences next year. 28-Jul-1999 British Telecom has announced plans to build a major new regional headquarters in Cardiff, and is considering a site at the proposed £240m sports and business village in Cardiff Bay. 20-Jul-1999 British Telecom is to refurbish its Stadium House office building in Cardiff at a cost of £6m. 13-Jul-1999 British Telecom has been told by the industry regulator to allow competitors to install their own equipment in BT's exchanges, which will enable companies such as Energis to offer higher bandwidth services over the local loop to customers. 07-Jul-1999 British Telecom's Isle of Man-based Manx Telecom subsidiary is expected to be the first to launch an ADSL service providing multimedia services over ordinary telephone lines. 05-Jul-1999 British Telecom's Syntegra division is to acquire Control Data Systems, the US systems integrator, for £217m. 02-Jul-1999 British Telecom is expected to launch a new multimedia network service using ADSL technology in August, which will provide fast internet access and video over ordinary domestic telephone wires. 25-Jun-1999 British Telecom is buying out MCI Worldcom, TV New Zealand and the Todd Corporation to acquire the remaining 75% stake in Clear Communications, the New Zealand telecoms company. 18-Jun-1999 British Telecom is to close a directory enquiry centre in Stirling by June 2000 with the loss of up to 100 jobs. 05-Jun-1999 British Telecom is linking up with Photo-Me International to transform photo booths into internet kiosks, incorporating smartcard technology. 25-May-1999 British Telecom is to help fund the £24m Northern Informatics public-private project to build an electronic economy in north-east England, which will involve free access to IT, a regional smartcard, and an education network. 21-May-1999 British Telecom is planning to spend £600m in the Spanish telecoms market over the next ten years, creating a new internet and multimedia network for both residential and business users. 19-May-1999 British Telecom and ICL are linking up with Sega to offer a free internet access service to customers of Sega's Dreamcast games console. 14-May-1999 British Telecom is planning to persuade at least 10,000 of its office staff to work from home, in order to save about £134m a year and enable it to dispose of surplus properties. 12-May-1999 British Telecom is linking up with GratisTel International of Sweden to trial a telephone service that offers free calls to customers prepared to listen to adverts during their conversations. 28-Apr-1999 British Telecom and AT&T have confirmed plans to acquire a 30% stake in Japan Telecom at a cost of £1.2bn, and Japan Telecom will distribute BT and AT&T services in Japan. 26-Apr-1999 British Telecom is considering plans to build a multi-million pound regional headquarters at Temple Quay in Bristol. 21-Apr-1999 British Telecom has offered £1.2bn to increase its stake in Airtel of Spain from 18% to 34%, as part of a strategy to increase its share of the European mobile phones market. 16-Apr-1999 British Telecom has acquired a 20% stake in SmarTone, the Hong Kong mobile operator, for £240m, as part of a strategy to expand its business in the Asia-Pacific region. 08-Apr-1999 British Telecom has announced the creation of an additional 350 jobs at its £25m call centre at Gosforth Business Park on Tyneside. 07-Apr-1999 British Telecom has won approval from the European Commission for its planned alliance with AT&T, in which they will offer a wide range of global services to multinational companies. 31-Mar-1999 British Telecom has formed a consortium with five partners to bid for Italy's fourth mobile phone licence. 19-Mar-1999 British Telecom is acquiring a 20% stake in ImpSat, the builder of fibre optic networks in South America, for £90m. 12-Mar-1999 British Telecom is to close a computer centre in Portsmouth as part of a strategy to focus its computer operations at large central sites, and the 25 staff are being offered alternative posts. 10-Mar-1999 British Telecom has launched a free internet access service called ClickFree. 10-Feb-1999 British Telecom is forming an alliance with Microsoft to develop data communications services for mobile customers, and the services will be tested in the UK before being launched commercially around the world next year. 09-Feb-1999 British Telecom is to relaunch its Home Highway high-speed internet and telephone service this spring, following problems with the initial launch caused by unexpectedly heavy demand. 09-Feb-1999 British Telecom has acquired Arrakis, the Spanish internet service provider, for £9.5m. 05-Feb-1999 British Telecom has announced the completion of a new pan-European high-speed network that will enable it to cope with rapid growth in data traffic and to reduce transmission prices. 04-Feb-1999 British Telecom has appointed Skillsgroup as its first choice supplier of professional and computer training for the next four years. 02-Feb-1999 British Telecom has been given the go-ahead to acquire a stake in the next generation of mobile phones and to bid for full control of Cellnet, as the government has agreed to relax the restrictions on the group. 30-Jan-1999 British Telecom is planning to set up a corporate university in order to train its 125,000 employees, and it is seeking partners to help develop tailor-made courses. 19-Jan-1999 British Telecom has opened a £40m national distribution centre at Magna Park near Lutterworth, which has created 250 jobs. 18-Dec-1998 British Telecom is providing £3m of support to Ionica, as customers of the failed radio-based telecoms company move to BT and other operators. 17-Dec-1998 British Telecom, Cellnet and Vodafone have been told by Oftel to reduce the cost of calls to mobile phones by a total of £1bn over the next three years, following an investigation by the Monopolies & Mergers Commission. 16-Dec-1998 British Telecom is planning to set up a network of 2,500 multimedia phone booths throughout the country, enabling people to use the internet and obtain a free email address. 10-Dec-1998 British Telecom has acquired a 50% stake in Excite's UK internet business for £6m, and intends to launch Excite as an internet service provider. 26-Nov-1998 British Telecom is reviewing the future of its £2bn property portfolio due to changes in accounting standards, which could result in the assets being spun off into a separate company. 16-Nov-1998 Yahoo is launching a pay-as-you-go internet access service in partnership with British Telecom. 05-Nov-1998 British Telecom is planning to close its commercial maritime radio services next year, as they are being replaced by satellite and cellular-based services. 12-Oct-1998 The Foreign Office has chosen GSL, a consortium of Tarmac, Group 4 and British Telecom, as the preferred bidder to rebuild the GCHQ government communications headquarters in or near Cheltenham. 08-Oct-1998 British Telecom has awarded a contract to Netscape for the supply of software for its new pay-as-you-go internet access service. 08-Oct-1998 British Telecom has acquired a 23% stake in LG Telecom, the South Korean mobile operator, for £230m. 01-Oct-1998 British Telecom is planning to introduce thousands of multimedia payphones as part of a new email service called Talk21. 01-Oct-1998 British Telecom's VIAG Interkom joint venture is to become the first company in Germany to provide Internet services, mobile and fixed telephone lines from a single supplier. 30-Sep-1998 British Telecom is moving into the Dutch mobile market with the launch of the first fully digital service in the Netherlands, in a joint venture with the national railway company Nederlandse Spoorwegen. 29-Sep-1998 British Telecom is to open up a new advertising medium by displaying adverts in 85,000 of its street payphone kiosks. 14-Aug-1998 British Telecom is acquiring MCI's 25% stake in Concert Communications, BT's international alliance, for $1bn. 13-Aug-1998 British Telecom is reorganising its UK operations in order to provide more customer focus, and its three divisions will be split into seven, including voice and data services, engineering, product development, Yellow Pages, Payphones, mobile, and business services. 12-Aug-1998 British Telecom has been given Oftel approval to move into Hull, which has traditionally been dominated by the municipally-owned Kingston Communications, although it is not clear whether BT will want to do so. 01-Aug-1998 British Telecom has won a licence to build and operate its own networks in Japan, through a joint venture with Marubeni. 29-Jul-1998 British Telecom is acquiring a 33% stake in Binariang, the Malaysian private telecoms group, for about £250m, which will enable it to offer its global managed network to Binariang's customers. 25-Jul-1998 British Telecom is said to be close to completing the installation of a new UK telecoms network for data traffic, which will enable it to offer a wide range of business and domestic services. 21-Jul-1998 British Telecom is said to have identified four potential US partners, including Bell Atlantic, Sprint, AT&T and Qwest, and an alliance could be announced by the end of the month. 16-Jul-1998 British Telecom has outlined plans to create a pan-European communications network along with its European partners, which will begin with the interconnection of their existing networks with 7,000km of new fibre. 13-Jun-1998 British Telecom has applied for a licence to build a fibre optic network around Tokyo, to enable it to offer international voice calling and other services to Japanese companies. 12-Jun-1998 British Telecom is to launch a subscription-free pay-as-you-go internet service, aimed at light users who will be charged for the service as part of their ordinary phone bill. 10-Jun-1998 British Telecom has won a £9.7m contract from RCI to manage a holiday timeshare exchange call centre in Cork, Ireland. 28-May-1998 British Telecom is planning to sell its cable TV franchises in Westminster and Milton Keynes in order to help win regulatory approval for its participation in the British Interactive Broadcasting venture. 21-May-1998 British Telecom has announced plans to invest a further £800m to increase capacity for data communications and internet services. 14-May-1998 British Digital Broadcasting is appointing British Telecom to manage the customer call centre for its pay-television services, which will create an initial 100 jobs rising to over 1,000. 08-May-1998 British Telecom is to run the final stages of a trial for its OnePhone service in an unnamed village near Cambridge, and it will enable customers to use the same phone number for fixed line and mobile services. 06-May-1998 The government is to allow British Telecom and other public telecoms operators to offer broadcast services throughout the country from the start of 2001, a year earlier than previously expected, and they can immediately start offering such services to the 17% of homes not covered by cable franchises. 24-Apr-1998 British Telecom is planning to launch a new package of price discounts and services in July called Corporate Advance, in order to offer greater flexibility to its large corporate customers. 20-Apr-1998 British Telecom is to set up a £6m call centre in Dundee, creating 800 jobs and offering services to companies that outsource their call handling. 18-Apr-1998 British Telecom has begun talks with a number of potential acquisition targets in the US, and says that the US is the key to its international expansion plans. 20-Mar-1998 British Telecom has reached an informal agreement with China Telecom to increase co-operation and understanding between the two companies. 19-Mar-1998 British Telecom is expected to win government approval later this year to buy out Securicor's 40% stake in Cellnet, the mobile phone operator. 11-Mar-1998 British Telecom has started recruiting high street stores and banks for a new videophone system called Easyphone, and it expects to be able to offer it to home subscribers for under £150. 07-Mar-1998 British Telecom has won a mobile phone licence in the Netherlands in a joint venture with the national railways. 27-Feb-1998 British Telecom is said to be planning to end its relationship with Telefonica, and will instead compete head-on with the telecoms operator by applying for fixed-line and mobile licences in Spain. 14-Feb-1998 British Telecom has dropped plans to provide TV programmes via telephone cables, and will instead focus on the provision of services via the internet to computers and interactive TV. 13-Feb-1998 British Telecom has applied for a licence that would enable it to build a telecoms network in Japan and link Japanese companies to its Concert global carrier. 06-Feb-1998 British Telecom has opened a new £9.2m call centre in south west Belfast, and also plans to expand its presence in the Irish Republic through a joint venture with the Electricity Supply Board. 05-Feb-1998 British Telecom is planning to invest £300m in the modernisation of its network to support the expansion of its internet and data communications services. 03-Feb-1998 British Telecom is to take a 26% stake in a consortium called Picienne Italia to bid for Italy's third mobile telephone licence. 29-Jan-1998 British Telecom is testing a new service that will enable its competitors to offer telephone calls over BT's lines using their own brand name, thereby doing away with the need for subscribers to pay a separate bill to BT for line rental. 16-Jan-1998 The government is considering plans to lift the ban that prevents British Telecom from broadcasting TV programmes on its phone network from 2000, a year earlier than expected. 15-Jan-1998 British Telecom is said to be negotiating the acquisition of a 20% stake in AAPT, the third-largest Australian telecoms carrier, in preparation for a £240m takeover bid. 14-Jan-1998 GTE of the US is preparing to make a major move into the European telecoms sector with talk of possible acquisitions and alliances with large companies such as British Telecom, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom. 08-Jan-1998 British Telecom is setting up a joint venture with the Electricity Supply Board of Ireland in order to offer a range of telecoms services to Irish companies using ESB's digital microwave network. 10-Dec-1997 British Telecom has sold its 20% stake in MCI Communications for $7bn and agreed to end their merger pact, as the US telephone company is now arranging a $37bn takeover by WorldCom. 11-Nov-1997 British Telecom is to test launch the equivalent of an ISDN connection over ordinary telephone lines, which will provide fast internet connections for home users, in a service called Home Highway. 08-Nov-1997 British Telecom is to invest $20m in the ICO Global Communications consortium, which is setting up a major network of communication satellites in low earth orbit. 22-Oct-1997 GTE Corporation has offered $28bn to acquire MCI Communications of the US, thus outbidding WorldCom, and prompting speculation that British Telecom, who have an agreement to purchase the remaining 80% of MCI, might be prepared to negotiate a three-way deal. 16-Oct-1997 WorldCom of the US has launched a $30bn counter-bid for MCI, casting uncertainty over British Telecom's planned merger with the company. 02-Oct-1997 British Telecom is to set up a £9m telephone-based sales centre in Belfast, which will also offer contract teleservices for other companies, creating 750 jobs. 27-Aug-1997 British Telecom has renegotiated its merger with MCI of the US, reducing the value of MCI by 15% to $23.7bn following last month's profits warning. 23-Aug-1997 British Telecom is now conducting an in-depth review of MCI, its US merger target, following the unexpected profits warning issued by MCI last month. 01-Aug-1997 British Telecom is under pressure from Oftel, the industry regulator, to certify that it will not neglect domestic customers in its quest for international expansion, and this may become a new condition on the company's licence. 25-Jul-1997 British Telecom may be considering a move to renegotiate its planned $20bn merger with MCI of the US, following the revelation that MCI could lose $800m on its US domestic expansion plans. 12-Jul-1997 British Telecom is to launch a virtual private network service in Hong Kong by the end of July, following moves to deregulate the local telecoms market. 02-Jun-1997 BSkyB is to form British Interactive Broadcasting, a £700m joint venture with British Telecom, Midland Bank and Matsushita, to launch 200 digital TV channels and interactive services in the UK. 05-May-1997 British Telecom is launching a managed data service called Enterprise Solutions, which it claims will save smaller companies up to 40% of the costs involved in setting up and maintaining computer networks. 01-May-1997 Carlton Communications and its partners in the British Digital Broadcasting consortium have started discussions with British Telecom to develop interactive set-top boxes for digital TV. 30-Apr-1997 British Telecom and MCI have announced an alliance with Telefonica of Spain, in a move that could have a dramatic effect on the balance of power in the world telecoms sector. 19-Apr-1997 British Telecom and MCI are to become the strategic partners of Portugal Telecom. 15-Apr-1997 British Telecom is to withdraw a service which enables hotels to calculate guests' telephone bills unless the hotels replace their old equipment, in a move which will prevent hotels from making mark-ups on the bills. 14-Apr-1997 British Telecom is linking up with NTT Data and MCI to set up a global internet dial-roaming service to enable subscribers to access the internet in foreign countries. 11-Apr-1997 British Telecom is to set up two new telemarketing centres - in Doncaster and North Tyneside - each employing 1,000 people. 08-Apr-1997 British Telecom and Vodafone and Cellnet have been ordered by Oftel to reduce the cost of making calls to mobile phones by about 30%. 26-Mar-1997 British Telecom is planning to link up with Telefonica of Spain by acquiring a stake in Telefonica Internacional, which has stakes in some South American operators. 19-Mar-1997 British Telecom is to take a 51% stake in a joint venture with Marubeni of Japan, in order to offer direct access to global services. 19-Mar-1997 British Telecom is linking up with NTT of Japan to bid for Singapore's second national telecoms licence. 14-Mar-1997 British Telecom has been ordered by Oftel to stop a marketing campaign which was said to be aimed at winning back customers who have switched to cable operators. 04-Mar-1997 British Telecom's Viag Interkom joint venture in Germany with Viag is to be strengthened when Telenor of Norway acquires a 10% stake. 07-Feb-1997 British Telecom and Viag have jointly won a contract for Germany's fifth mobile phone licence. 05-Feb-1997 British Telecom is discussing a link-up with NTT of Japan in order to invest £300m in the French telecoms sector, with NTT following BT's lead in acquiring a stake in Cegetel. 23-Jan-1997 British Telecom is cutting international telephone charges to 33 countries by between 10% and 37% from February 19th. 15-Jan-1997 British Telecom is acquiring a 22.5% stake in Bharti Cellular, the Indian mobile phone operator, for £60m. 11-Jan-1997 Deutsche Telekom is looking into the possibility of offering ISDN at £70 a connection in the UK, giving customers cheaper access to the internet than currently offered by British Telecom. 28-Dec-1996 British Telecom, in partnership with Tele-Danmark, has won a 49% stake in Newtelco, the telecoms system being laid along Swiss railway lines. 14-Dec-1996 British Telecom and MCI have filed an application for approval of their $20bn merger with the US Federal Communications Commission. 04-Dec-1996 The government is to give licences to 46 companies wanting to compete with British Telecom and Mercury in the international telecoms market, which will enable them to build and operate their own infrastructure rather than just lease lines. 13-Nov-1996 British Telecom has announced a £12bn merger with MCI, the US long-distance carrier, in which it is acquiring the remaining 80% stake it does not already own, thus creating a new entity called Concert which will be the world's fourth-largest telecoms company. 04-Nov-1996 British Telecom is planning a £50m network of up to 10,000 touch-screen terminals, called Touchpoint, to enable the public to book flights and cinema tickets, order various products and read the news. 29-Oct-1996 British Telecom's Mobility Solutions Group is to start offering personal telephone numbers, a mobile fax service and a text-to-speech email service. 26-Oct-1996 The Dutch government is to award a licence to Telfort, a joint venture between British Telecom and the Dutch national railways, to provide fixed-line telecoms services in competition to KPN. 24-Oct-1996 British Telecom has acquired a 25% stake in Cegetal, the subsidiary of Generale des Eaux, for £1.1bn, as it aims to expand into the French market for fixed and mobile telecom services. 27-Sep-1996 British Telecom is linking up with News International to launch Springboard, a company that will offer an internet service for the home using material from News International's newspapers. 26-Sep-1996 British Telecom is linking up with NS, the Dutch state railways, to set up a $590m fixed line telephone service for the Netherlands in competition with KPN. 19-Sep-1996 British Telecom is discussing a joint venture with the Kirch Group concerning the introduction of interactive digital television in Germany. 17-Sep-1996 British Telecom is to offer products from Intel in order to boost the UK market for desktop videoconferencing equipment. 14-Sep-1996 J Sainsbury, the supermarket, is expanding the features of its Reward customer loyalty card to offer free phone calls through British Telecom and the opportunity for cardholders to make donations to the NSPCC charity. 12-Sep-1996 British Telecom has cut the price of its ISDN2 high speed data service for small businesses, but the move is likely to attract charges of anti-competitive tactics from competitors. 22-Aug-1996 British Telecom and Microsoft are to jointly market network and on-line services to small businesses. 05-Jul-1996 British Telecom is setting up a new telemarketing centre in Warrington which will provide 1,000 part-time jobs from next January. 28-Jun-1996 British Telecom has announced plans to link up with MCI of America to invest an initial £200m in a dedicated internet network with eight international hubs, thus speeding up internet access. 11-Jun-1996 The government is to start allowing rivals to British Telecom and Mercury to operate their own circuits for international telephone calls, which could result in a big fall in call costs. 07-Jun-1996 British Telecom and BSkyB are said to be discussing a deal on digital satellite TV, prompting the Cable Communications Association to express its concern to Oftel and the OFT about the possible effects on competition. 31-May-1996 British Telecom and BSkyB are discussing a possible joint venture in digital television and interactive services, which would subsidise the introduction of digital set-top boxes. 18-May-1996 British Telecom and Cable & Wireless have restarted discussions about a merger which would see C&W acquire BT in a reverse takeover. 29-Mar-1996 British Telecom has reported encouraging results from its video-on-demand trial in Colchester and may invest £500m next year to roll it out to the rest of the country. 27-Mar-1996 British Telecom is discussing the formation of an Italian joint venture with Mr Silvio Berlusconi, the politician, to compete with Telecom Italia and benefit from the opening up of the Italian market in 1998. 16-Mar-1996 British Telecom and Cable & Wireless have failed to agree terms for a merger, apparently because C&W felt that BT was putting too low a value on its business. 11-Mar-1996 Energis has announced price cuts on international calls, making them at least 15% cheaper than British Telecom and Mercury to 18 countries. 08-Mar-1996 The government is proposing to remove the exclusive rights of British Telecom and Mercury to provide international services on their networks, which should benefit AT&T, Energis and Unisource if they apply for licences in the summer. 07-Mar-1996 British Telecom is launching BT Internet which it claims will offer residential and small business customers a simpler way to access the internet. 27-Feb-1996 British Telecom is in discussions with ENI of Italy which could lead to BT running ENI's telecoms network. 22-Feb-1996 British Telecom and Matsushita Electric are to jointly develop set-top boxes, video servers and video telephony semiconductor chips. 20-Feb-1996 British Telecom is linking up with RWE and Viag to provide telecoms services in Germany. 07-Feb-1996 British Telecom is planning to spend billions of pounds on an information superhighway to supply live entertainment to homes by 2001, with technology trials starting in 1996. 27-Dec-1995 Syntegra, the British Telecom systems integration unit, has bought Europe Informatique of Paris, and now plans to expand globally. 14-Dec-1995 British Telecom is under threat from Oftel due to accusations of anticompetitiveness as BT tries to win customers for its new BTNet internet service. 24-Nov-1995 British Telecom has a four year contract to sell two of On Demand Information's information products to business users. 15-Nov-1995 British Telecom has reported its first fall in residential telephone customers, mainly due to price cutting by cable companies. 10-Nov-1995 ICL and British Telecom are to run a joint trial at 11 Bristol schools on an interactive online education system. 08-Nov-1995 British Telecom and Bell Atlantic are pulling out of their attempt to acquire a stake in Belgacom, the Belgian state-owned telecoms concern. 16-Oct-1995 British Telecom is to increase prices of its phones, faxes and answering machines, following a ruling by Oftel that it was unfairly subsidising them. 26-Sep-1995
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