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Mercury Communications
From a Wikipedia Article (with additions)
Mercury Communications was a national telephone company
in the United Kingdom, formed in 1981 as a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless,
to challenge the then-monopoly of British Telecom (BT). Although it proved
only moderately successful at challenging BT's dominance, it led the way for
new communication companies to attempt the same.
In 1997, Mercury ceased to exist as a brand after its
amalgamation into the operations of Cable & Wireless.
Background: before 1981
The history of telecommunications in the United Kingdom
starts in 1879, with the establishment of its first telephone exchange in
London by The Telephone Company (Bells Patents) Ltd. On 10 March 1881,
National Telephone Company (NTC) was formed, which later brought together
smaller local telephone companies. In 1898, to break the near-monopoly held
by NTC, the Postmaster General's office, which was in charge of licensing
new telephone companies, issued thirteen new licences. But by 1911, five of
the remaining six competitors had been taken over by either the General Post
Office (GPO) or NTC.Under the Telephone Transfer Act 1911, NTC was taken
over by the GPO in 1912, and created a state-run monopoly that would run
nearly all telecommunication assets in the UK for the next seventy years.
During the 1920s, there was increasing competition from
companies using radio communications such as Marconi's Wireless Telegraph
Company. In 1928, it was decided that all telecommunication assets outside
the UK, and within the British Empire, particularly the telegraph companies,
should be merged into one operating company. The merged entity was initially
known as the Imperial and International Communications, and later in 1934 as
Cable & Wireless.
Following the Labour Party's victory in the 1945 general
elections, the government announced its intention to nationalise Cable and
Wireless, which was carried out in 1947. The company remained
government-owned, continuing to own assets and operating telecommunication
services outside the UK. All assets in the UK were integrated with those of
the General Post Office, which operated the UK's domestic telecommunications
monopoly.
In October 1969, the Post Office (a public corporation)
replaced the General Post Office (a government department). In October 1981,
the Post Office was split into two separate public corporations, the Post
Office and British Telecommunications. In 1981, the British government under
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher started the process of privatising nearly
all state-run monopolies, including British Airways, British Steel
Corporation, British Aerospace, and later British Telecommunications. The
act also started the privatisation of Cable & Wireless, whose primary
business was then in Hong Kong.
Mercury: 1981–97
In 1981, Mercury Communications, Ltd – a consortium of
Cable & Wireless, Barclays, and BP – was founded as an experiment in
telecommunications competition, primarily to compete with British Telecom.
Its first chairperson was Sir Michael Edwardes, known for his success in
turning around British Leyland. Mercury Communications was first licensed in
1982, and became a full Public Telecommunications Operator in 1984. The same
year, Cable & Wireless bought out the stakes of its partners.
In 1989, Mercury formed a consortium with Motorola and
Shaye Communications to run a national Telepoint service in the UK. Branded
as Callpoint, it was not a success and closed in June 1991 after operating
for a year and a half.
In July 1991, Mercury's sister concern, Mercury Personal
Communications Network (PCN) Ltd, was awarded one of the licences to develop
& build Personal communications network (PCN) networks in the United
Kingdom. The other two went to Microtel Communications, and Unitel PCNs were
envisaged to be superior to the then-existent cellular phone technology,
giving customers portability to make or take calls in the home or car, in an
aeroplane, or while on holiday.
In November 1992, Cable & Wireless sold a 20% stake for
about £480 million to the Canadian company BCE, the parent company of Bell
Canada International, which brought much-needed telecommunications expertise
to Mercury. BCE also owned two cable companies in the UK.
One2One was established as the trading name of Mercury
Personal Communications, a joint venture partnership equally owned by Cable
& Wireless and US West International, a division of US WEST Media Group.
One2One introduced Britain's first 1800 MHz GSM network in 1993, in
competition with the existing mobile networks of Vodafone and Cellnet.
Mercury forged strategic alliances with 16 UK cable
companies, which enabled them to offer both telephone and television
services to their customers. By the end of January 1993, over 117,000
telephone lines were supplied to cable operators by Mercury. In October
1996, Mercury was merged with three cable operators in the UK (Vidéotron,
Nynex and Bell Cable media) and renamed Cable & Wireless Communications (in
which Cable & Wireless plc owned a 53% stake); the Mercury brand then ceased
to be used.
Following this, the group embarked on a major disposal
programme, selling One2One to T-Mobile in 1999, then selling its stake in
CWC's consumer operations to NTL (now Virgin Media) in 2000.
Operations
Payphones and mobiles
From 1986 Mercury
operated public payphones in the UK, in competition with BT. These proved
not to be profitable and this interest was sold in 1995. They were notable
for their varied designs which imitated architectural styles.
Mercury also operated the first GSM 1800 mobile phone
service, launched in 1993 as Mercury One2one. The service was first rolled
out in the London area bounded by the M25 Motorway, and offered free mobile
to landline calls at off-peak times, weekends and Bank Holidays. Calls could
be made free to landlines in the area the mobile was in, and to adjacent
landline exchange codes. Even after this plan ceased being sold, SIM cards
that were subscribed to the plan continued to provide these free calls, and
often changed hands for large sums of money. Coverage was extended
throughout the decade, with most of the UK having service by 1997. One2One
was sold to Deutsche Telekom in 1999 for £8.4bn, and was rebranded as
T-Mobile in 2002.
Fixed-line phone
services
Mercury began by
offering fixed-line facilities direct to business and residential customers.
Callers could use the 'Mercury 2300' service via their existing BT phone
line by dialling a '131' prefix followed by a ten-digit customer code, then
the number they wished to dial.
The 131 number could be programmed into a telephone
system or a Smart Box fitted, which was effectively an auto-dialler that
prefixed the STD number with 131 and the customer code. Smaller Smart
Boxes were also produced for residential customers and these could be posted
as they would fit through a standard letter box.
Some phones were manufactured with a 'Mercury button'
which allowed the prefix and customer code to be stored and then dialled
with a single button press.
Later, a more modern indirect service was introduced
which required only the dialling of an access code (132) and the destination
number. Mercury also provided backbone services to the emerging British
cable operators which were beginning to offer their own fixed-line telephone
services.
Mercury moved into the Private Branch Exchange (PABX)
market in 1990 as a result of Telephone Rentals being bought by Cable &
Wireless. This enabled the Smart Box to be connected to a large number of
TR's customers, so traffic was routed away from BT onto Mercury's network.
Mercury pulled out of the PABX market in 1996, when it
sold that part of the business to Siemens, creating Siemens Business
Communication Systems (SBCS), which later became Siemens Communications.
In 1997 the Mercury brand ceased to be and it was
amalgamated into Cable & Wireless Communications. The consumer arm of the
latter would eventually be bought out by the telecommunications firm NTL in
1999, and then sold on to Npower in 2001 before the service was withdrawn
entirely some years later.
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