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Telecommunications in the United Kingdom

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Telecommunications in the United Kingdom have evolved from the early days of the telegraph to modern broadband and mobile phone networks with Internet services.[1]

History

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Company logo on porch of 17 & 19 Newhall Street, Birmingham (former Central exchange)

National Telephone Company (NTC) was a British telephone company from 1881 until 1911, which brought together smaller local companies in the early years of the telephone. Under the Telephone Transfer Act 1911 it was taken over by the General Post Office (GPO) in 1912.[citation needed]

The telephone service in the United Kingdom was originally provided by private companies and local city councils, but by 1912–13[2] all except the telephone service of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire and Guernsey had been bought out by the General Post Office. Post Office Telephones also operated telephone services in Jersey and the Isle of Man until 1969 when the islands took over responsibility for their own postal and telephone services. Post Office Telephones was reorganised in 1980–81[3] as British Telecommunications (British Telecom, or BT), and was the first nationalised industry to be privatised by the Conservative government. The civil telecoms monopoly ended when Mercury Communications arrived in 1983.

Broadcasting of radio and television was a duopoly of the BBC and Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA): these two organisations controlled all broadcast services, and directly owned and operated the broadcast transmitter sites. Mobile phone and Internet services did not then exist. Broadcast transmitters, which belonged to the BBC and IBA, were privatised during the 1990s and now belong to Babcock International and Arqiva.[citation needed]

British Rail Telecommunications was created in 1992 by British Rail (BR). It was the largest private telecoms network in Britain, consisting of 17,000 route kilometres of fibre optic and copper cable which connected every major city and town in the country and provided links to continental Europe through the Channel Tunnel.[4] BR also operated its own national trunked radio network providing dedicated train-to-shore mobile communications, and in the early 1980s BR helped establish Mercury Communications', now C&WC, core infrastructure by laying a resilient 'figure-of-eight' fibre optic network alongside Britain's railway lines, spanning London, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester.

Regulation of communications has changed many times during the same period, and most of the bodies have been merged into Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries.[5]

Infrastructure

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Domestic trunk infrastructure

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All communications trunks are now digital. Most are carried via national optical fibre networks. There are several companies with national fibre networks, including BT, Level 3 Communications, Virgin Media, Cable & Wireless, Easynet and Thus. Microwave links are used up to the 155 Mbit/s level, but are seldom cost-effective at higher bit rates.[citation needed]

International trunks

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The UK is a focal point for many of the world's submarine communications cables, which are now mostly digital optical fibre cables. There are many satellite links too, but these now provide a relatively small part of the international bandwidth.[citation needed]

Broadcast transmission

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Most broadcasting organisations, BBC and commercial, lease transmission facilities from one or more of the transmission companies. The main exception is the smaller local radio stations, some of which find it more cost-effective to provide their own.[citation needed]

Services

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Television and radio broadcasting

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Radio

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Main article: Radio in the United Kingdom

In 1998, there were 663 radio broadcast stations: 219 on AM, 431 on FM and 3 on shortwave. There were 84.5 million radio receiver sets (1997). Today[when?] there are around 600 licensed radio stations in the UK.[citation needed]

Television

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Main article: Television in the United Kingdom

In 1997, there were 30.5 million households with television sets.[citation needed] Analogue television broadcasts ceased in the UK in 2012, replaced by the Digital Terrestrial Service Freeview which operates via the DVB-T and DVB-T2 (for HD broadcasts) standards. Digital Satellite is provided by BSkyB (subscription and free services) and Freesat (free-to-air services only) from services at 28.2° East. Digital cable is primarily provided by Virgin Media.[citation needed]

Internet

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Main article: Internet in the United Kingdom

The country code top-level domain for United Kingdom web pages is .uk. Nominet UK is the .uk. Network Information Centre and second-level domains must be used.

At the end of 2004, 52% of households (12.6 million) were reported to have access to the internet (Source: Office for National Statistics Omnibus Survey). broadband connections accounted for 50.7% of all internet connections in July 2005,[6] with one broadband connection being created every ten seconds.[7] Broadband connections grew by nearly 80% in 2004. In 1999, there were 364 Internet service providers (ISPs). Public libraries also provide access to the internet, sometimes for a fee.

In 2017, 90% of households were reported to have access to an internet connection. This percentage shows an increase in internet access from 80% in 2012 and 61% in 2007.[8]

Mobile telephony

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Mobile phone networks

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Timeline
Vodafone
Cellnet
BT Cellnet
O2
Mercury One2One
One2One
T-Mobile
Orange
Everything Everywhere
EE
Three
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1985
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1986
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1987
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1988
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1989
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1990
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1991
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1992
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1993
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1994
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1995
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1996
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1997
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1998
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1999
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2000
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2001
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2002
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2003
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2004
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2005
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2006
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2007
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2008
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2009
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2010
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2011
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2012
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2013
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2014
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2015
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2016
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2017
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2018
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2019
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2020
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2021
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2022
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2023
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2024
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2025

First generation networks

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Both companies ran ETACS analogue mobile phone networks.

2G

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  • O2 – runs a GSM-900 network, owned by Telefónica.
  • Vodafone – runs a GSM-900 network.
  • EE – runs a GSM-1800 network. Formerly this was two separate companies: Orange and T-Mobile, which was originally called One-2-One.

2G is being phased out and replaced with 4G and 5G. The four mobile network operators have agreed to switch off their 2G networks by 2033.[9]

3G

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The four 2G companies all won 3G licences in a competitive auction, as did a new entrant known as Hutchison 3G, which branded its network as 3.

3G networks were rolled-out during the early 2000s. They made it possible to access the internet through a mobile phone for the first time.[10]

Mobile network operators are in the process of switching off their 3G networks. EE,[11] Vodafone[12] and Three[13] have completed their switch-offs, with O2 expected to follow in 2025.[14]

4G

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Long-term evolution (LTE) services are extensive. EE launched their 4G network in October 2012, using part of their existing 1800 MHz spectrum. O2 and Vodafone will use the 800 MHz band with Vodafone also using the 2600 MHz band for their services. O2 launched its 4G network on 29 August 2013, initially in London, Leeds and Bradford with a further 13 cities added by the end of 2013.[15] Vodafone commenced its 4G services on 29 August 2013, initially in London with 12 more cities to be added by the end of 2013.[16] 3 commenced LTE services in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Reading, Wolverhampton and the Black country in December 2013 albeit with a limited number of subscribers to evaluate its implementation. Full rollout to remaining subscribers commenced on 5 February 2014 on a phased basis via a silent SIM update.[17] A 50 further cities and over 200 towns are scheduled to receive LTE coverage by the end of 2014.[18][19][20] As a condition of acquiring part of EE's 1800 MHz spectrum for 4G use, 3 were unable to use it until October 2013.[21][22]

5G

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5G is currently being rolled-out by mobile network operators. The first commercial networks went live in major UK cities in 2019.[23]

EE was the first to launch their 5G network, initially in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham and Manchester on 30 May 2019,[24] followed by Vodafone in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and London on 3 July 2019.[25] Three launched their 5G service on 19 August 2019, initially for broadband customers in London.[26] O2 was the last network to launch a 5G network; the rollout of which began in October 2019, starting with Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, Slough and Leeds.[27]

Numbers

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When mobile cellular networks were first rolled out, there were various numbers beginning 03 through 09 in use, these being interspersed between the various existing geographic area codes. As part of the Big Number Change, all mobile (as well as pager and personal) numbers were brought together under the 07 range. The table below shows the initial ranges of numbers that were allocated as part of the new 07 range, which began on 30 September 1999.[28]

Original 07- mobile number allocations (by 30 September 1999)
O2

(formerly Cellnet)

Vodafone EE

(formerly Orange and One2One)

07701 07702 07703 07710 07711 07712 07713 07714 07715 07719 07730 07740 07750

07801 07802 07803 07808 07809 07850 07860 07885 07889

07721 07741 07747 07760 07767 07768 07769 07770 07771 07774 07775 07776 07778 07780 07785 07787 07788 07798

07818 07831 07833 07836 07867 07879 07880 07881 07887 07899 07901 07979

07909 07990

07773 07779 07790

07800

07966 07967 07968 07971 07973 07974 07976 07977 07980 07989

Mobile phone services

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See also: List of mobile network operators of Europe § United Kingdom, and List of mobile virtual network operators in the United Kingdom

There are four mobile network operators in the United Kingdom - O2, EE, Vodafone, and Three.

The number of active mobile subscriptions (excluding M2M) was 89.6 million at the end of Q2 2024, up 2.1 million (2.4%) from the year before.[29]

In 2011 there were 82 million subscriptions in the UK.[30] There were 76 million in 2008[31] and 55 million in January 2005.

All of the mobile network operators sell mobile phone services directly. In addition, there are a large number of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). Examples include Tesco Mobile, spusu, Lebara, and SMARTY.

Fixed telephony

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Landlines

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BT is still the main provider of fixed telephone lines[32] and it has a universal service obligation, although companies can contract Openreach to install a phone line on their behalf, rather than telling the customer to get BT to install it, then transfer over.[citation needed]

Sky is the second biggest player in the residential telephone line market.[32] Other companies provide fixed telephone services such as Virgin Media, Vodafone and EE.[32]

In Q2 2024, the total number of fixed voice lines (including PSTN, ISDN and VoIP) was 25.4 million, a fall of 2.6% compared to the previous year. Total fixed-originated call volumes decreased by 1.22 billion minutes (21.5%) to 4.46 billion minutes.[33]

The switched telephone network (both PSTN and ISDN) is due to be turned off on 31 January 2027, after customers are moved to voice over IP services.[34][35]

Numbering

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Main article: Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom

There is a set numbering plan for phone numbers within the United Kingdom, which is regulated by the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which replaced the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel) in 2003. Each number consists of an area code – one for each of the large towns and cities and their surroundings – and a subscriber number – the individual number.

Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Events in British Telecomms History". Events in British TelecommsHistory. Archived from the original on 5 April 2003. Retrieved 25 November 2005.
  2. ^ "1912to1968". www.btplc.com. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013.
  3. ^ "1981 – 1983". Archived from the original on 29 July 2005. Retrieved 10 August 2005.
  4. ^ "History of Thales Telecommunications Services". Homepage.ntlworld.com. Archived from the original on 11 May 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  5. ^ Office, Great Britain: National Audit (5 July 2006). The Creation of Ofcom: Wider Lessons for Public Sector Mergers of Regulatory Agencies. The Stationery Office. ISBN 9780102939125. Archived from the original on 10 May 2018.
  6. ^ "UK prefers broadband to dial-up". BBC News. 19 July 2005. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
  7. ^ "Broadband in the UK gathers pace". BBC News. 20 December 2004. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
  8. ^ Open Government Licence. "Internet access – households and individuals: 2017". Office for National Statistics.
  9. ^ "A joint statement on the sunsetting of 2G and 3G networks and public ambition for Open RAN rollout as part of the Telecoms Supply Chain Diversification Strategy". GOV.UK. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  10. ^ "3G and 2G switch-off: Our expectations of mobile providers". 2 February 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ "We're Switching Off Our 3G Network". EE. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  12. ^ Office, Press (27 February 2024). "Vodafone successfully switches off 3G in UK, boosting 4G and 5G". Vodafone UK News Centre. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  13. ^ "Our plans to switch off 3G | Support | Three". www.three.co.uk. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  14. ^ "O2's 3G switch Off – Help and Support | O2". www.o2.co.uk. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  15. ^ Seppala, Timothy J. (31 July 2013). "UK's O2 launches 4G service August 29th in London, Leeds and Bradford (updated)". Engadget. Archived from the original on 6 August 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  16. ^ Trew, James (7 August 2013). "Vodafone UK confirms 4G network to launch August 29th, plans start at £26 a month". Engadget. Archived from the original on 10 August 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  17. ^ Morris, Jonathan (5 February 2014). "Three's 4G network is live! First batch of customers activated this morning". Archived from the original on 4 January 2017.
  18. ^ "Three adds 4G to all 8m customers, huge 2014 rollout plans listed". March 2014. Archived from the original on 17 March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
  19. ^ Joe, Antasa (4 January 2010). "What's the difference between a traditional number and a virtual landline number?". Flower Telecom. Archived from the original on 16 July 2017. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
  20. ^ "Get Ready for 4G". Archived from the original on 1 September 2013.
  21. ^ BBC News (2 October 2012). "4G timetable agreed by UK mobile network operators". Archived from the original on 4 October 2012.
  22. ^ Kelion, Leo (31 July 2013). "UK completes 4G airwave clearance for mobile networks". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2 August 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  23. ^ Clark, Adam; Baker, Carl (1 November 2025). "5G in the UK". House of Commons Library.
  24. ^ "EE launching UK's first 5G service in six cities, bringing a new era in faster, more reliable connectivity". EE launching UK’s first 5G service in six cities, bringing a new era in faster, more reliable connectivity. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  25. ^ Office, Press (14 May 2019). "Vodafone switches on 5G in the UK on 3rd July 2019; 5G roaming this summer". Vodafone UK News Centre. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  26. ^ "Three switches on 5G today: 5G is in the house". Three Media Centre. 19 August 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  27. ^ "O2 announces October 5G launch, prioritising areas where customers will benefit most". Virgin Media O2. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  28. ^ "List of phone numbers" (CSV). static.ofcom.org.uk.
  29. ^ "Telecommunications Market Data Update Q2 2024". www.ofcom.org.uk. 31 October 2024. Retrieved 11 January 2025.
  30. ^ "Facts & Figures". Ofcom. Archived from the original on 11 August 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  31. ^ "Vodafone Sees Loss of UK Market Share and Lower ARPUs". Cellular-news.com. 23 April 2009. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  32. ^ a b c Technology Tracker 2024 Data Tables (PDF), Ofcom, 16 July 2024, p. 119
  33. ^ "Telecommunications Market Data Update Q2 2024". www.ofcom.org.uk. 31 October 2024. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  34. ^ O’Halloran, Joe (16 December 2024). "UK businesses risk disruption as PSTN switch-off approaches". Computer Weekly. Retrieved 6 January 2025.
  35. ^ "The withdrawal of landlines and switch to digital calls". House of Commons Library. 23 May 2024. Retrieved 6 January 2024.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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  • Cave, Martin. "The evolution of telecommunications regulation in the UK." European Economic Review 41.3-5 (1997): 691–699.
  • Cave, Martin. "40 years on: An account of innovation in the regulation of UK telecommunications, in 3½ chapters." Telecommunications Policy 41.10 (2017): 904–915.
  • Cave, Martin, and Peter Williamson. "Entry, competition, and regulation in UK telecommunications." Oxford Review of Economic Policy 12.4 (1996): 100–121.
  • Green, James R., and David J. Teece. "Four approaches to telecommunications deregulation and competition: the USA, the UK, Australia and New Zealand." Industrial and Corporate Change 7.4 (1998): 623–635.
  • Hindmarch-Watson, Katie. "Embodying Telegraphy in Late Victorian London." Information & Culture 55#1 (2020): 10–29. online
  • Hindmarch-Watson, Katie. Serving a Wired World: London's Telecommunications Workers and the Making of an Information Capital (2020).
  • Morris, Robert C. Between the Lines: A Personal History of the British Public Telephone and Telecommunications Service 1870–1990 (1994), we;; illustrated.
  • Potter, Simon J. Broadcasting Empire: The BBC and the British World, 1922-1970 (2012)
  • Scannell, Paddy, and David Cardiff. A Social History of British Broadcasting: Volume 1 – 1922–1939, Serving the Nation (1991)
  • Solomon, Jonathan H. "Telecommunications Evolution in the UK." Telecommunications Policy 10.3 (1986): 186–192.
  • Spiller, Pablo T., and Ingo Vogelsang. "The institutional foundations of regulatory commitment in the UK: the case of telecommunications." Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE)/Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft (1997): 607–629.
  • Starr, Paul. The creation of the media: Political origins of modern communications (2004).
  • Standage, Tom. The Victorian Internet: The remarkable story of the telegraph and the nineteenth century's online pioneers (Phoenix, 1998) online
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