1985 - the Big Bang and all that..

Why do we call 1985 the Big Bang? Well it was the year that British Telecom stopped being a State Monopoly, became privatised, and started to have to allow competition.

Because all the Infrastructure (wires, exchanges, phones - everything!) was owned by BT, the Government had to legislate to allow access to all of BT's infrastructure by its competitors. This created a somewhat artificial competitive market, where access to exchanges was controlled tightly by BT, BT engineers only were allowed to install lines to business premises and equipment in exchanges - but it was labelled an "open market". The intention was fair, but I think everyone involved in telecoms from that point to this would agree BT have been fighting a rearguard action ever since.

Anyway, 1985 was the first year you could buy a telephone system for your business from anyone other than BT.

You could also get your phone lines from Cable & Wireless and other companies. So all of a sudden UK Telecoms became a new frontier and, like all new markets, a bit like the Wild West!

All sorts of companies sprang up selling all sorts of Telecoms equipment and also buying call minutes wholesale from BT, C&W etc. and selling them on to business customers at lower rates than BT.

To bring Data into the picture, this was the era of the Mainframe Computer - typically Green Screen shared session computing, accessed by users remotely via dedicated computer cabling. Because Mainframe Computers were so expensive, it was also the era of centralised Computer Departments with rooms full of equipment serviced by men in white coats, driving other rooms full of terminals used by Data Entry staff. Because Green Screen terminals only need a very little data it started to become practicable to allow Users from far locations access to the mainframe via Modem boxes (which MOdulate/DEModulate the information from the mainframe to the Terminal along a telephone connection).

Over time Telephone Systems became more sophisticated and feature rich as a natural result of competition, modems became faster, and traffic requirements for calls and data became ever higher as we entered "Modern Times" - and if you ever saw the Charlie Chaplin film of the same name you would have an idea of where the Telecoms Industry is now!