During the 1960s and 1970s the Post Office had to face more and more commercial realities - the need to keep the network growing, the need to increase the user base and, more importantly, the need to keep increasing traffic.
The telephone service became increasingly seen as a business rather than a public service - and more and more driven by public demand, rather than Civil Service whim.
Britain went into the 1960s still in the black and white age, and came out in colour. That applied not just to TV, but to films, clothes, cars, furnishings and telephones. The 'hip' decade saw telephones come of age as ...
The 1970s were not a happy time for Britain: mounting economic crisis, industrial unrest, social tensions and a general feeling of uncertainty and pessimism about the future.
The industry mindset changed as telecommunications were taken out of the hands of The Post Office and vested in British Telecom.
In 1980 Post Office ...