1
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Rivalry between BT and CWplc in the UK
2.
Prior to 1981, BT was part of the UK Post Office
which catered for the UK telecommunications needs. CWplc
was wholly owned by the UK Government, and originally set to provide telecommunications service in the overseas territories of the British Empire.
3.
up
From 1981 onwards, the UK Government has sought to liberalise the supply of telecommunications services in the
UK. The telecommunications division of the Post Office was
separated and formed the basis for BT, and the Mercury consortium (a 100% subsidiary of CWpic) was licensed to run a competing public telecommunications system to be interconnected with the BT system. While CWplc has been entirely privatised in stages, 50.2% of BT was publicly floated in 1984. Both BT and CWple have been transformed from two publicly owned companies with mutually exclusive areas of operations into competing private companies.
4.
The difference in company strength can be judged from the fact that whereas Mercury's total investment in its network up to July 1986 has been estimated at about £200m, BT's investment in its network for the year 1985/86 alone amounted to £2000m. The UK Government hopes that Mercury's
share of the British Telecommunications market will amount
to 5% by 1992.
Economic Services Branch
Government Secretariat
26 June 1987