Did you know?

The first phone book was published in the UK in 1880. However, unlike the modern phone book, no phone numbers were included in it! There were 248 subscribers to the Telephone Company, with their addresses only listed. If you wanted to phone somebody, you had to phone the operator and ask to speak to the person by name. The first name listed in the first phone book was John Adam & Co, 11 Pudding Lane, City of London.

On 19th February 1884, Swedish born L M Ericsson produced the first telephone handset – a combination of the separate transmitter and receiver.

When the Titanic sank on 15th April 1912, 700 passengers were rescued because of a call made by wireless telegraphy.

Early telephone kiosks (the K1 in 1921 and the K3 in 1929 for example) were built out of concrete. The famous landmark red telephone boxes, which are an iconic part of the British landscape, were launched as Kiosk No. 6 or K6 in 1936. Known as the "Jubilee Kiosk" they were introduced to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Coronation of King George V, who passed away that year to be succeeded briefly by Edward VIII before the abdication crisis. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and for the first time was installed across the UK. As part of the jubilee celebrations, one was installed in every town or village with a post office. This led to the introduction of over 8000 kiosks.

The Speaking Clock was introduced in 1936. The service was originally only available in London. Miss Jane Cain won the first Post Office competition to become the voice of the first speaking clock. Her voice was used until 1963 when she was replaced by Pat Simmons. In 1985, Brian Cobby became the first male voice to be the speaking clock. He was replaced in 2007 by Sara Mendes de Costa.

The 999 emergency number was introduced in London in 1937, and subsequently rolled out across the rest of the country. It resulted in a buzzing and a red light flashing in the telephone exchange to draw the operator's attention to the fact that it was an emergency call.

It wasn't until 1951 that the telephone was recognised as being separate from a telegraph in UK law – a previous ruling in 1880 had decided that the telephone was a form of telegraph!

The number for the operator became 100 in 1959.

The curly chord connecting the handset to the telephone first appeared in 1959 on the 700 series of telephones.

Prime Minister Harold Wilson opened the Post Office Tower in London (now the BT Tower) on Friday 8th October 1965. It was Britain's tallest building at the time.

British Telecoms introduced its first Answering and Recording Machine No 101 in 1981. There had previously been machines which answered, but not ones which you could leave a message on.

For the first time in 1985 it became possible to rent a phoneline from BT without having to rent a phone from them as well.

The first card phones were introduced in 1981. Britain's first credit card operated pay phone was introduced in 1985 in Heathrow and at Waterloo.

Itemised Billing was first introduced in 1987.

In 1992, Britain's 100,000th BT payphone was installed, at Dunsop Bridge near Clitheroe in Lancashire. This is the closest village to the centre of Great Britain.