Telecommunications soon became vital to national prosperity - and to national survival. Therefore the business of wires and airwaves was always going to be high on the political agenda - and subject to political pressure. Over the years, that pressure has been felt in many different forms.
For most of its life, the British telecommunications industry was dominated by government control. The move to centralise direction began with regulation of the telegraph in the 1860s, and then its nationalisation.
The problem with a state-owned telecommunications network was that it was hostage to national fortunes. Britain ended the Second World War virtually bankrupt. There was little money in the public coffers to pay for ...
As the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, shortcomings state-owned telecommunications became increasingly apparent. The 'one size fits all' approach became increasingly irrelevant to people's domestic and business needs. ...