The Government's desire to open up the telecommunications market to competition, and to allow the privatised BT to compete efficiently within that market, was made clear in the lengthy Parliamentary debates on the Telecommunications Bills. Some relevant extracts from the official record of Parliamentary debates (Hansard) are as follows:-

"The Bill follows logically the measures that we are already taking to bring competition into telecommunications.... Any growing business, such as BT, needs the discipline of the market place to meet the needs of its customers effectively. It needs the right to raise its own finance, the freedom to invest and the freedom to manage its own business" (Patrick Jenkin, then Secretary of State for Industry, 29 November 1982).

"We want BT to have the complete freedom that a private company has. Only in this way can the needs of the country and of BT be met.

The Bill creates freedom from Treasury and ministerial control. It also gives freedom to BT to grow, to operate overseas, and to make acquisitions... the market is growing so quickly that BT can expand only by becoming a free, independent company" (Kenneth Baker, Minister for Industry and Information Technology, 29 November 1982).

"There is every reason to hope BT, freed from State control, will develop over the years into a major force in world electronics and IT (information technology), and rank with AT&T, IBM and other international companies.... That is what we as a government wish to come about" (Cecil Parkinson, then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, 24 June 1983).

In relation to the Telecommunications Act 1984, the Government appreciated the fact that major changes were required to BT's procurement and manufacture activities. Two further extracts from Hansard are as follows:-

"The Government have decided that BT should not be prevented from manufacturing but should be free, like other plcs, to decide on its own areas of business. However, like other plcs, BT's manufacturing interests will be subject to the normal commercial law on monopolies" (Lord Glenarthur, Lord-in-Waiting, 16 January 1984).

"If we were to continue with the old cosy relationship of a public utility with an exclusive privilege, having its accredited manufacturers continuously supplying equipment to the same specifications, this country would become a telecommunications backwater" (John Butcher, Under Secretary of State for Industry, 15 February 1983).

The changes that were required had to enable BT to be more responsive in a new competitive environment and also allow for the company to reach the desired aim of becoming a world force in telecommunications. The commercial freedom of action granted to BT includes the freedom to enter into new joint ventures and, if it so decided, to engage in the manufacture of its own apparatus.

The 1984 Act, in addition to providing for the privatisation of British Telecom, abolished the exclusive privilege of running telecommunication systems and established a framework to safeguard the workings of competition. Now that British Telecom has lost its monopoly in running telecommunication systems, it requires a licence to run such a system in the same way as any other telecommunications operator. The principal licence granted to BT lays down strict and extensive conditions affecting the range of its activities, including those of manufacture and supply of apparatus and is subject to close scrutiny and review by the Director General of Telecommunications, the head of the Office of Telecommunications (OFTEL).

[This article was kindly contributed by the BT Archives and Historical Information Centre]

She was a small paddle steamer fitted with disconnecting paddle-wheels. The bow sheaves were carried on oak beams on the forecastle head and her displacement was 760 tons. After being employed on the maintenance of submarine cables across the Straits of Dover, she was eventually sold out of service in 1915.

During the First World War the number of vessels required to upkeep and maintain the submarine cables had been increasing. In anticipation of this the Post Office had already prepared plans and specifications to replace the first "Alert". However, because the second Cableship "Monarch" was sunk before the "Alert" was sold, the proposed new ship was subsequently named "Monarch".

Eventually the second Cableship "Alert" was launched in 1918 after being constructed by Messrs Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson. Along with the new Cableship "Monarch" the "Alert" was designed to operate in shallow waters only. Her gross tonnage was 941 and the 105 horse power engines were able to drive the twin-screws up to a maximum speed of 10.5 knots. The ship was constructed from steel and had a clipper stem with cable sheaves and a cruiser type stern. Originally she was coal-fired, but was converted to oil fuel in 1920. Three cable tanks of 10160 cubic feet total capacity were fitted. These could hold up to 81 miles of single core cable, 54 of 4 core or 35 of 6 or 7 core.

As a result of other demands during World War I she had to be equipped with the very old and almost broken down cable gear from the first Cableship "Alert". This largely impeded her operational capabilities until it was replaced in 1921 by more modern gear.

After 27 years service, on 24 February 1945, shortly before VE Day, the Cableship "Alert" was sunk while repairing the Dumpton Gap - La Panne cable in the Straits of Dover. All 59 hands - officers and men - were lost.

The third Cableship "Alert" was originally a German cable ship called "Norderney" which had been bombed in a raid on Kiel in 1940. In June 1945 the "Norderney" was brought over from Germany by her German crew to Methil on the Firth of Forth, together with other German ships that were taken over as prizes. On arrival the German crew were placed on another ship for transfer back to Germany and the "Nordeney" was taken over by the Post Office.

After the "Norderney" had sailed from Methil to the Post Office cable depot at Woolwich, where all the prize cable on board was landed, she was taken to Southampton and handed over to Messrs J & I Thornycroft for a major overhaul and refit to bring her up to Post Office standards.

When the work had been completed the "Norderney" was re-named "Alert" and had a gross tonnage of 1487 and a length of 255ft. The 3 cable holds in the ship were able to accommodate up to 600 tons of cable which was used to lay and maintain the network of submarine cables around the British Isles. Because she was only a coal-fired ship with rather cramped accommodation, the radius in which she could operate had to be restricted to coastal waters.

This third Cableship "Alert" served for 15 years from the Post Office cable depot at Woolwich, but was eventually sold out of service in August 1960, soon after her last voyage. At the age of 45 years, she was considered to be past her prime.

Cable ship "Alert" number 4 was constructed by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co Ltd, and launched on 7 November 1960 at Govan, Glasgow by Mrs Bevins, wife of the then Postmaster General. The vessel was finally completed in April 1961 and after extensive sea trials, was formally accepted by the Post Office on 21 April 1961.

Most of the superstructure is constructed from steel and the aft end is sufficiently stiffened to support cable machinery weighing up to 120 tons. With an overall length of 417ft and a gross tonnage of 6200 the new ship is by far the largest "Alert" to date. The diesel electric engines are capable of producing 4400 bhp and a maximum service speed of 15 knots.

This latest ship is primarily designed to maintain the transatlantic cables in the North Atlantic working up to depths measuring 3 1/2 miles. With this in mind she has been especially strengthened for navigation in ice, class 3. Because she was intended to work in the North Atlantic her base was initially at the Dalmuir depot, on the Clyde.

Her first operational voyage took place when she left Greenwich on 25 June 1961. She was used to lay the St Lawrence section of the CANTAT cable between Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Grosses Roches which commenced on 16 July 1961. She was also used to lay the first section of TAT 3 which connected the US to England directly.

In 1969 the Cableship "Alert" was repainted from having a white hull with buff funnels to International Orange for the hull, Light Admiralty Grey for the superstructure and Golden Yellow for masts, cranes, funnels and lifeboats. This was done because the previous white became very difficult to keep clean and it was decided that the ship should be made to look more conspicuous at sea. Therefore, the shade of orange used was chosen because it is internationally recognised as a colour easily seen at sea.

[This article was kindly contributed by the BT Archives and Historical Information Centre]

The possibilities of PCM systems for the transmission of speech had been known for some 30 years. The idea was originally developed in Paris in 1937 by A H Reeves working for the Western Electric Company and was first patented in France in 1938. He proposed a transmission system in which voice signals were electronically coded into strings of digital pulses, transmitted in this form, and then turned back into speech at the receiving end. His ideas were well in advance of his time, for the techniques discovered could not be realised economically until suitable components, particularly transistors, were available.

Technical advances made during the early 1960s enabled several companies to develop an interest in PCM as a solution to the problem of providing multichannel systems on cables designed for speech networks. The aim was to increase the number of circuits that could be provided by the existing junction cables. Conventional analogue transmission meant that only 2 conversations could be carried by 2 pairs of wires at one time; PCM transmission increased this substantially to 24 simultaneous conversations by interleaving the groups of pulses corresponding to different callers (Time Division Multiplexing), reducing the need for many new cables. Other advantages of PCM transmission are that it is free from interference suffered with audio cables, and the use of regenerative repeaters at intervals along the line to amplify the signal allows the transmission of speech over considerable distances without distortion. PCM transmission also allows a greater diversity of telecommunications services in addition to telephony, including facsimile and data transmission.

Prior to the opening of Empress exchange PCM had been in operational use since the previous year in selected areas on junction routes linking different exchanges, but where there was no direct route the existing network included tandem exchanges for switching junctions. When using PCM transmission this switching was still done by conventional electromechanical means. The calls were transmitted digitally, but had to be converted to analogue before they could be switched, and then changed back yet again into digital form for transmission over the next PCM system. The equipment needed for this rather inefficient process was expensive, so that it was uneconomic on routes of less than 10 miles, and the method also detracted from the improved quality of speech which PCM had produced. PCM had potential to enable much of the growth in demand for circuits to be catered for on the existing system, but the tandem switching was a major disadvantage.

Post Office research scientists were in the forefront of projects to overcome this problem. A small team began working on the solution early in 1965. They first designed a model of a digital tandem switching centre to test the feasibility of switching traffic by digital means, and to be a skeleton for a much larger exchange to be used for field trials. When experiments were complete the model was demonstrated to the press at the Post Office Research Station, Dollis Hill, on 15 February 1968. In April the experimental exchange was moved for a trial under field conditions to the site of Empress exchange (01-367) in West Kensington to switch calls originating from nearby exchanges: Acorn (01-992), Ealing (01-567) and Shepherd's Bush (01-743).

The particular significance of Empress was that it was the first of its type in the world to switch PCM signals from one group of lines to another in digital form. The field trial was essential to establish that an integrated PCM transmission and switching system was capable of working fully within the existing network of electromechanical (Strowger and Crossbar) systems and of carrying live traffic. It had also to provide indications of the technical possibilities and the financial implications of a more widespread use of digital switching. These objectives were clearly achieved as the system was the origin of a total digital service and the integrated digital network to which British Telecom is now committed. This first use of advanced computer-like technology with micro-electronic circuits was part of a deliberate policy to exploit technological innovation to the full and has led directly to the development of the System X family of Digital Switching Systems which is revolutionising today's network and the services offered to British Telecom's customers.

[This article was kindly contributed by the BT Archives and Historical Information Centre]

The first facsimile equipment for use in communications was the chemical telegraph invented by Alexander Bain (1810-1877) in 1842 and patented during the following year. This consisted of a metallic contact resting on a moving paper slip saturated with an electrolytic solution. The wire and the tape formed part of an electric circuit and when current flowed, discoloration of the tape occurred.

It is thought that the first working model of Bain's chemical telegraph was constructed and operated at about the time of the World Fair held in London in 1851. At this fair a second facsimile machine was demonstrated by Bakewell, who had been granted the relevant patent in 1848.

In principle the two machines operated in similar fashion using damp electrolytic paper as a recording medium and relied for transmission on a scanning stylus being in physical contact with the text of the message, the text being in relief form with raised lettering. Both systems also depended on associated pendulums and electromagnets for synchronisation. The Bain machine was essentially a flat bed machine while in Bakewell's model the relief text and receiving electrolytic papers were wound on drums.

For many years the development of facsimile equipment was directed towards improving the mechanics of the scanning and reproduction functions. In 1865 the first working trials for a commercially viable facsimile machine was set up in France by an Italian, Caselli. Shortly after this Meyer facsimile machines were also tried out in the French telegraph systems.

Although the Caselli and Meyer machines had been brought into service there were still two major areas of difficulty to be investigated: synchronisation and contact transmission. A practical method of synchronising the early facsimile machines was finally worked out, and culminated in the La Cour tuning fork controlled motor synchronisation.

Facsimile was first used commercially in France as an electromechanical telegraph. In 1870 there were some 17 Meyer facsimile instruments in service in the French telegraph system in conjunction with 4000 electromechanical telegraph machines. It appears that the facsimile facility was used to a large extent by the French government and to carry information relating to stockbroking. The main advantages seen at this time were the virtual elimination of errors in transmission and the availability of a facsimile signature.

The contact type transmitters used up to the early years of the 20th century were not satisfactory and limited the speed of transmission via facsimile. This was overcome through the development of a suitably sensitive photoelectric cell by Dr Arthur Korn of Germany in 1902, and his application of this cell to phototelegraphy work. The technique of this system was to transmit light through a photographic negative of the original, wound on a glass cylinder, to a photocell which converted the light pulses to electrical signals. The receiving medium was sensitised paper and the picture was reproduced in positive form. By 1910 Korn had established phototelegraphy links from Berlin to Paris and London, and in 1922 successfully transmitted by radio a picture from Rome to New York. In 1926 a commercial radio link for facsimile working was opened between the London office of the Marconi Wireless and Telegraph Company, and the New York office of the RCA.

The need to have material photographed to provide a negative for transmission, and the consequential high cost of the equipment developed on this principle, led to further research, and a system of transmission based on reflected light was evolved. In 1935 the Associated Press of the USA installed a country-wide network based on this system.

By the 1920s pictures for publication in newspapers were being transmitted around the world. Later developments of the service in the 1930's included the introduction of weather maps and wire photo services. Technology had improved sufficiently beyond the late 19th century equipment to ensure that facsimile was a technically viable proposition even though the basic techniques and concept were unchanged.

Among the later adaptations of facsimile service by a telegraph company was that of the Western Union in the 1930s when they made facsimile machines available in public places for the transmission of messages to the nearest Western Union office. The message was then forwarded from the office in the normal telegraph manner. Unfortunately this system proved prone to vandalism and was phased out. Western Union was involved in another similar venture: "Desk Fax" introduced in 1948. Using this system private companies who rented transmitters were able to send short messages via a Western Union telegraph office.

The main area in which facsimile proved successful in augmenting telegraph facilities was in the transmission of photographs i.e. phototelegrams - mainly newspaper pictures, but also pictures of documents, machine drawings and fingerprints. This service grew from the start of the New York - London link in 1926 and continued to thrive. By 1950 access to 24 countries was available and in 1963 the Post Office phototelegraphic system was operating services to and from 56 European terminals and 38 extra-European terminals. In January 1976 these figures were 47 and 51 respectively to a total of 65 countries.

The success of phototelegraphy was not reflected in other uses devised for facsimile. Attempts to introduce home news broadcasts in manuscript form and thus bring facsimile into the residential market failed. Such systems were tried as early as 1929 in America and throughout the 1930s. Once television was introduced there was no possibility of facsimile competing.

As a telecommunications medium facsimile remained from the 1930's to the early 1960's essentially a system for specialised applications with sophisticated expensive machines - the two main sections of use being in distributing weather charts and in the newspaper industry.

Although suitable telephone coupling devices were available from the 1930s it was not until the 1960s that relatively cheap facsimile machines were available for connection to the PSTN. Growth in the market was prompted by declining postal services in the USA, and in Japan by the pictorial nature of the alphabet. These new machines became known as document facsimile machines and were used for transmitting handwritten, typed or printed text and drawings. A contributory factor to the late development of a simple dial-up facsimile unit was the relatively late stage at which solid state techniques were introduced to the facsimile system.

Europe lagged behind the USA and Japan, but early growth followed agreed standards on machine design by the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT). The introduction of Group 1 standard in 1968 was a significant step in the development of facsimile, despite slow and unreliable terminals and lack of full compatibility. It took 6 minutes to transmit an A4 page, but the machine stimulated interest in the concept of sending text and graphic material by telephone around the world instead of heavy reliance on the postal service.

A Group 2 standard was agreed in 1976, which halved the time of transmission to 3 minutes and improved quality with a scanning density of 100 lines per inch. But the density remained unsatisfactory for sending documents containing small print and the time for transmission still meant that a 10 page document took half an hour to receive.

A further CCITT standard was agreed in 1980 for Group 3 machines, which used digital transmission techniques and took less than one minute per page with an improved scanning resolution of 200 lines per inch. All were compatible and could communicate with most Group 2 machines regardless of supplier.

[This article was kindly contributed by the BT Archives and Historical Information Centre]

Telegraph links between the UK and America had been in existence from the middle of the previous century, and 1927 saw the first commercial radiotelephone service between the UK and America. Initially this was just one circuit, with an average of 2000 calls per year. The cost of calls was prohibitive; in 1928 the basic rate for calls and New York was reduced to £9 for 3 minutes' conversation. The system was subject to atmospheric disturbance and fading, and at best had a limited number of frequencies available for circuits.

In the 1920s and 30s the feasibility of a telephone cable between Europe and America was frequently discussed, but always seen as having too many technical difficulties, notably the need for the cable to be divided into sections and to have repeater stations, to boost the signal across such a great distance, installed along its length. The repeaters had to have sufficient strength and reliability to work below 2 miles of ocean, because of the obvious problems in adjusting and repairing them once they had been laid.

It was only with the development of coaxial cables with polyethylene insulation, carrier frequency equipment and broadband submerged repeaters that transatlantic telephony by cable could be realised - this equipment was gradually developed just before and during the Second World War.

Research on repeaters in the United States led in the early 1950s to two repeatered cables being laid between Havana and Key West in Florida. In Britain work was mostly done on repeaters suitable for the medium depths in which cable would be laid around the coast and to the European mainland. In 1943 the first submerged repeaters (suitable for depths of 200 fathoms) was laid in the Irish Sea between Anglesey and the Isle of Man, and this was followed by considerable development in submarine coaxial cables and submerged repeaters linking UK with Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark. Once these small experimental projects had been seen to work successfully, it was then possible to begin the more ambitious transatlantic project.

On 1 December 1953 the Postmaster General announced that the Agreement for the first transatlantic telephone cable had been signed. The scheme was to be undertaken by the Post Office Engineering Department, the Long Lines Department of American Telegraph and Telephone Company, Bell Telephone Laboratories and the Canadian Overseas Telecommunications Corporation. 50% of the shares were held by the American companies, 40% by the Post Office and 9% by the Canadian Corporation.

One of the first difficulties encountered was in selecting a route for the 2 cables required, as the shortest, and perhaps the best, were already occupied with telegraph cables. In the winter of 1953 suitable sites to land the cables were chosen in Newfoundland and Scotland.

The Scottish site was a few miles south of Oban, and was linked by an improved coaxial cable line to carry 900 inland and transatlantic circuits via Glasgow to International Exchange, London. On the other side of the Atlantic the cables came ashore at Clarenville, Newfoundland, then crossed the Cabot Strait to Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia. From Sydney Mines to the US border a line-of-sight microwave radio link completed the system; in New Brunswick, Maine, the route branched to Montreal to connect with the Canadian network.

The main Atlantic link, designed by Bell Laboratories, consisted of 2 cables (one for each direction of transmission) with 51 one-way flexible repeaters installed at 37-mile intervals along each cable. The Post Office 2-way repeater system, with rigid repeaters spaced about 20 miles apart, was developed at the Dollis Hill Research Station, and was used for the shallow waters of the 300-mile Cabot Strait, enabling transmission in both directions over a single cable. Armoured cable, protected by steel, was necessary to safeguard against damage by ships' anchors and trawler gear, almost all of which was manufactured in a new factory at Erith, Kent.

Apart from the short shore ends the whole of the transatlantic cable was laid by the cableship 'Monarch'. 'Monarch', built for the post Office in 1945 to replace the ship of the same name destroyed during the war, was the only existing cableship capable of conveying the 1,500 nautical miles of cable which had to be laid in one piece across the deepest part of the Atlantic. The ship had been employed in 1952 laying cable for Bell Laboratories in the United States, and replacing an 800 mile stretch in the middle of one of the early transatlantic telegraph cables. TAT 1, however, was so revolutionary that the whole of 'Monarch's' cable laying machinery had to be either replaced or modified. The size of the cable engine drums had to be altered to avoid damaging the flexible repeaters as they were being introduced.

Nevertheless, the use of these repeaters brought extra benefits. Their structure enabled them to pass along the ship's laying gear while it was still travelling, although at a reduced speed. When laying rigid repeaters it was necessary for a cable ship to stop each time.

In February 1955 the first lengths of cable were manufactured, and in March 'Monarch', equipped with new cable-laying gear, undertook trials off Gibraltar, and shortly afterwards began work on laying the first transatlantic cable, from west to east.

Each cable was to be laid in 3 continuous lengths complete with repeaters. At the end of June 1955 'Monarch' laid 200 miles of shore and cable from Clarenville. After picking up a fresh supply of cable it returned to the buoyed cable-end of Clarenville and, avoiding the North Atlantic icebergs, laid the 1500 nautical miles across the Atlantic to Rockall Bank. The journey was uneventful, apart from the severe storms which occurred near Rockall, the result of Hurricane Ione. In the meantime cableship 'Iris' sailed for Oban to lay the Scottish end cables. 'Monarch' reloaded with cable, returned to Rockall Bank to lay the last 500 miles towards Oban where the final joint was made with the shore end cable on 26 September, completing one cable link. Speech could then be transmitted in one direction, and answered by radiotelephone to test the system.

The project continued once weather conditions in the Atlantic improved the following spring. By April 'Monarch' had left to install the single cable across Cabot Strait, and by the end of May 'Iris' had laid the Scottish shore end of the second cable. 'Monarch', starting from the end of this cable, laid the main deep- sea section in August, to which the Clarenville shore end was joined on 14 August. TAT 1 had been completed, 3 months ahead of schedule.

At the inaugural ceremony at Lancaster House in London at 4.00 pm on 25 September 1956 the service was opened by the Postmaster General, who spoke to the Chairman of AT&T calling from New York, and to the Canadian Minister of Transport. The 250 people present listened with individual earphones to the first conversation over the transatlantic telephone cable; TV cameras recorded the event.

In the first 24 hours of public service there were 588 London-US calls and 119 from London to Canada. This was the start of a substantial increase in the number of calls made. During the first full week of operation the number of calls to Canada was 85% higher than the average weekly traffic over the radiotelephone circuits; calls from Canada were 100% higher. Calls made at the full rate to the United States were up by 60% and at the cheap rate by 50%. Business callers were the main users of the service. Except for the busiest period between 3.00 and 5.00 pm (10.00 am and 12 noon New York time) calls were connected within about 10 minutes and, as the Post Office Magazine proudly announced in 1957 "it is rare for any call to be delayed beyond an hour, except for causes outside the operator's control". During its first year of service TAT 1 carried twice as many calls as the radio circuits had done in the previous 12 months - about 220,000 calls between Britain and the United States, and 75,000 between Britain and Canada. This brought in £2 million revenue to be shared between the three countries.

In 1956 the first transatlantic telephone cable was regarded as a major technological achievement, not least as a base for future research and improvements, developments which have led to the sophisticated transatlantic projects of TAT8 and TAT9 involving the use of optical fibre cables and digital technology.

[This article was kindly contributed by the BT Archives and Historical Information Centre]