BT Group plc (trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, broadband and mobile services in the UK, and also provides subscription television and IT services.

BT's origins date back to the founding in 1846 of the Electric Telegraph Company, the world's first public telegraph company, which developed a nationwide communications network. BT Group as it came to be started in 1912, when the General Post Office, a government department, took over the system of the National Telephone Company becoming the monopoly telecoms supplier in the United Kingdom. The Post Office Act of 1969 led to the GPO becoming a public corporation, Post Office Telecommunications. The British Telecom brand was introduced in 1980, and became independent of the Post Office in 1981, officially trading under the name. British Telecom was privatised in 1984, becoming British Telecommunications plc, with some 50 percent of its shares sold to investors. The Government sold its remaining stake in further share sales in 1991 and 1993. BT holds a royal warrant and has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

BT controls a number of large subsidiaries. Its BT Enterprise division supplies telecoms services to corporate and government customers worldwide, and its BT Consumer division supplies telephony, broadband, and subscription television services in the United Kingdom to around 18 million customers.

History

Electrical telegraphy

A number of privately owned electrical telegraph companies operated in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1846 onwards. Among them were:
 Electric Telegraph Company, the world's first public telegraph company, which developed a nationwide communications network
 British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company
 British Telegraph Company
 London District Telegraph Company
 United Kingdom Telegraph Company

General Post Office
The Telegraph Act 1868 passed the control of all these to the Postal Telegraphs Department of the newly formed General Post Office (GPO). The Telegraph Act 1869 granted the GPO a monopoly over communications.

With the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 the GPO began to provide telephone services from some of its telegraph exchanges. It was confirmed in 1880 that the 1869 Act included telephony even though the telephone had not been invented when the Act was first conceived. In 1882, the Postmaster-General, Henry Fawcett started to issue licences to operate a telephone service to private businesses and the telephone system grew under the GPO in some areas and private ownership in others. The GPO's main competitor, the National Telephone Company (NTC), emerged in this market by absorbing other private telephone companies. It controlled most of telephony in Britain before the 1880 ruling on the Telegraph Act 1869 mandated a nationalised service – which was instated in 1911 prior to the absorption of the NTC into the GPO in 1912.

The trunk network was unified under GPO control in 1896 and the local distribution network in 1912. A few municipally owned services remained outside of GPO control. These were Kingston upon Hull, Portsmouth and Guernsey. Hull still retains an independent operator, Kingston Communications, though it is no longer municipally controlled.

Post Office engineers in the inter-war period had considerable expertise in both telecommunications and hearing assistive devices.

Post Office Telecommunications

In 1969 the GPO, a government department, became the Post Office, a nationalised industry separate from government. Post Office Telecommunications was set up as a division of the Post Office, in October 1969. The Post Office Act 1969 was passed to provide for greater efficiency in post and telephone services; rather than run a range of services, each organisation would be able to focus on their respective service, with dedicated management. By law, the Post Office retained the exclusive right to operate the UK national telecom network, (although since 1914 had licensed Hull City Council to operate its own local telephone network, Kingston Communications).

The 1970s was a period of great expansion for the Post Office. Most exchanges were modernised and expanded, and many services, such as STD and international dialling were extended. By the early 1970s, subscribers in most cities could dial direct to Western Europe, the US, and Canada; by the end of the decade, most of the world could be dialled direct. The System X digital switching platform was developed, and the first digital exchanges began to be installed. The Post Office also procured their own fleet of vans, based on the Commer FC model.

Post Office Telecommunications researched and implemented data communications using packet switching in the 1970s, resulting in the EPSS, International Packet Switched Service, and Packet Switch Stream.

British Telecom

In 1979 the Conservatives decided that telecommunications should be fully separated from the Post Office. The British Telecom brand was introduced in 1980. On 1 October 1981, this became the official name of Post Office Telecommunications, which became a state-owned corporation independent of the Post Office under the provisions of the British Telecommunications Act 1981. In 1982 BT's monopoly on telecommunications was broken with the granting of a licence to Mercury Communications.

Privatisation
On 19 July 1982, the Government announced its intention to sell shares in British Telecom to the public. On 1 April 1984, British Telecommunications was incorporated as a public limited company (plc) in anticipation of the passing of the Telecommunications Bill. This Bill received Royal Assent on 12 April, and the transfer to British Telecommunications plc from British Telecom as a statutory corporation of its business, its property, its rights and liabilities took place on 6 August 1984.

Initially all shares in the new plc were owned by the Government. In November 1984, 50.2% of the new company was offered for sale to the public and employees. Shares were listed in London, New York, and Toronto and the first day of trading on was 3 December 1984. The Government sold half its remaining interest in December 1991 and the other half in July 1993. In July 1997, the new Labour Government relinquished its Special Share ("Golden Share"), retained at the time of the flotation, which had effectively given it the power to block a takeover of the company, and to appoint two non-executive directors to the Board.

The company changed its trading name to "BT" on 2 April 1991. In 1996 Peter Bonfield was appointed CEO and chairman of the executive committee, promising a "rollercoaster ride".

In the 1990s, BT entered the Irish telecommunications market through a joint venture with the Electricity Supply Board, the Irish state owned power provider. This venture, entitled Ocean, found its main success through the launch of Ireland's first subscription-free dial-up ISP, oceanfree.net.  As a telecoms company it found much less success, mainly targeting corporate customers. BT acquired 100% of this venture in 1999.

Attempted global alliances

MCI
In June 1994  BT and MCI Communications launched Concert Communications Services which was a $1 billion joint venture between the two companies. Its aim was to build a network which would provide easy global connectivity to multinational corporations.

This alliance progressed further on 3 November 1996 when the two companies announced that they had agreed to a merger, creating a global telecommunications company called Concert plc. The proposal gained approval from the European Commission, the US Department of Justice, and the US Federal Communications Commission and looked set to proceed.

However, in light of pressure from investors reacting to the slide in BT's share price on the London Stock Exchange, BT reduced its bid price for MCI, releasing MCI from its exclusivity clause and allowing it to speak to other interested parties. On 1 October 1997, Worldcom made a rival bid for MCI which was followed by a counter-bid from GTE.

BT sold its stake in MCI to Worldcom in 1998 for £4,159 million. As part of the deal, BT also bought out from MCI its 24.9% interest in Concert Communications, thereby making Concert a wholly owned part of BT.

The reaction to the failure of the deal in the City of London was critical of then Chairman Iain Vallance and CEO Peter Bonfield, and the lack of confidence from the failed merger led to their removal.

AT&T
As BT now owned Concert, and still wanted access to the North American market, it needed a new partner. An AT&T/BT option had been mooted in the past, but stopped on regulatory grounds due to their individual virtual monopolies in their home markets. By 1996, this had receded to the point where a deal was possible and a deal was consummated in 1998.

At its height, the Concert managed network was extensive. Although Concert continued signing customers, its rate of revenue growth slowed, so that in 1999 David Dorman was made CEO with a brief to revive it.

In late 2000 the BT and AT&T boards fell-out – partly due to each partner's excess debt, and the resulting board room clear-outs – partly due to Concert's extensive annual losses. AT&T recognized that Concert was a threat to its ambitions if left intact, and so negotiated a deal where Concert was split in two in 2001: North America and Eastern Asia went to AT&T, the rest of the world and $400M to BT. BT's remaining Concert assets were merged into its BT Ignite, later BT Global Services group.

BT Ireland
In 2000, BT acquired Esat Telecom Group plc, and all its subsidiary companies, and Ireland On Line. It also purchased Telenor's minority shareholding in Esat Digifone. The Esat Telecom Group was split in two with the landline and internet operations were combining with Ocean to become part of BT Ignite.  Esat Group was renamed Esat BT in July 2002, and eventually BT Ireland in April 2005. Esat Digifone became part of BT Wireless, before being spun off into a separate independent company mmo2 plc (now Telefónica Europe). EsatBT installed the first DSL lines in Ireland, to try and compete heavily with former state telecoms company Eircom and operate one exchange, in Limerick.

2001 debt crisis
By 2001, BT had a debt of £30 billion, much of which was acquired during the bidding round for the 3rd generation mobile telephony (commonly known as 3G) licences. It had also failed in its series of proposed global mergers, and the funds flowing from its then virtual monopoly of the UK market place had been largely removed. It was also headed by two executives who had little support from the London Stock Exchange, particularly in light of a 60% drop in share price in sixteen months.

Philip Hampton joined as CFO, and in April 2001 Sir Iain Vallance was replaced as chairman by recognised turn around expert Sir Christopher Bland.

Europe's largest rights issue
In May 2001  BT carried out corporate Europe's largest ever rights issue, allowing it to raise £5.9 billion. A few days before, it sold stakes in Japan Telecom, in mobile operator J-Phone Communications, and in Airtel of India to Vodafone.

Sale of Yell Group and demerger of O2
In June 2001 BT's directory business was sold as Yell Group to a combination of private equity firms Apax Partners and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst for £2.1 billion.

A demerger followed in November 2001, when the former mobile telecommunications business of BT, BT Cellnet, was hived off as a separate business named "mmO2". This included BT owned or operated networks in other countries, including BT Cellnet (UK), Esat Digifone (Ireland), and Viag Interkom (Germany). All networks now owned or operated by mmO2 (except Manx Telecom) were renamed as O2. The de-merger was accomplished via a share-swap, all British Telecommunications plc shareholders received one mmO2 plc and one BT Group plc (of which British Telecommunications is now a wholly owned subsidiary) share for each share they owned. British Telecommunications plc was de-listed on 16 November, and the two new companies started trading on 19 November.

Aftermath
At the end of the series of sales, in October 2001  Sir Peter Bonfield resigned, and was replaced by former Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen.

During Bonfield's tenure the share price went from £4 to £15, and back again to £5. Bonfield's salary to 31 March 2001 was a basic of £780,000 (increasing to £820,000) plus a £481,000 bonus and £50,000 of other benefits including pension. He also received a deferred bonus, payable in shares three years' later, of £481,000, and additional bonuses of £3.3 million.

mmO2 plc was replaced by O2 plc in a further share-swap in 2005, and subsequently bought in an agreed takeover by Telefónica for £18 billion and delisted. In 2004, BT launched Consult 21, a consultation organisation that was to aid  BT 21CN in the eventual conversion to digital telephony.

In 2004, BT was awarded the contract to deliver and manage N3, a secure and fast broadband network for the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT) program, on behalf of the English National Health Service (NHS).

In 2005 BT made a number of acquisitions. In February 2005, BT acquired Infonet (now re-branded BT Infonet), a large telecoms company based in El Segundo, California, giving BT access to new geographies. It also acquired the Italian company Albacom. Then in April 2005, it bought Radianz from Reuters (now rebranded as BT Radianz), which expanded BT's coverage and provided BT with more buying power in certain countries.

In August 2006, BT acquired online electrical retailer Dabs.com for £30.6 million. The BT Home Hub manufactured by Inventel was also launched in June 2006.

In October 2006, BT confirmed that it would be investing 75% of its total capital spending, put at £10 billion over five years, in its new Internet Protocol (IP) based 21st century network (21CN). Annual savings of £1 billion per annum were expected when the transition to the new network was to have been completed in 2010, with over 50% of its customers to have been transferred by 2008. That month the first customers on to 21CN was successfully tested at Adastral Park in Suffolk.

2007 to 2012
In January 2007, BT acquired Sheffield-based ISP, PlusNet plc, adding 200,000 customers. BT stated that PlusNet will continue to operate separately out of its Sheffield head-office. On 1 February 2007, BT announced agreed terms to acquire International Network Services Inc. (INS), an international provider of IT consultancy and software.

In February 2007, Sir Michael Rake succeeded Sir Christopher Bland. In April that year, they acquired COMSAT International, followed in October by the acquisition of Lynx Technology.

BT acquired Wire One Communications in June 2008 and folded the company into "BT Conferencing", its existing conferencing unit, as a new video business unit
In July 2008, BT acquired the online business directory firm Ufindus for £20 million in order to expand its position in the local information market in GB. On 28 July 2008, BT acquired Ribbit, of Mountain View, California, "Silicon Valley's First Phone Company". Ribbit provides Adobe Flash/Flex APIs, allowing web developers to incorporate telephony features into their software as a service (SaaS) applications.

In the early days of its fibre broadband rollout, BT said it would deliver fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) to around 25% of the Country, with the rest catered for by the slower fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC), which uses copper wiring to deliver the final stretch of the connection. In 2014, with less than 0.7% of the company's fibre network being FTTP, BT dropped the 25% target, saying that it was "far less relevant today" because of improvements made to the headline speed of FTTC, which had doubled to 80Mbit/s since its fibre broadband rollout was first announced. To supplement FTTC, BT offered an 'FTTP on Demand' product. In January 2015, BT stopped taking orders for the on-demand product.

On 1 April 2009, BT Engage IT was created from the merger of two previous BT acquisitions, Lynx Technology and Basilica. Apart from the name change not much else changed in operations for another 12 months. On 14 May 2009, BT said it was cutting up to 15,000 jobs in the coming year after it announced its results for the year to 31 March 2009. Then in July 2009, BT offered workers a long holiday for an up front sum of 25% of their annual wage or a one-off payment of £1000 if they agree to go part-time.

On 6 April 2011, BT launched the first online not-for-profit fundraising service for UK charities called BT MyDonate as part of its investment to the community. The service will pass on 100% of all donations made through the site to the charity, and unlike other services which take a proportion as commission and charge charities for using their services, BT will only pass on credit/debit card charges for each donation. The service allows people to register to give money to charity or collect fundraising donations. BT developed MyDonate with the support of Cancer Research UK, Changing Faces, KidsOut, NSPCC and Women's Aid.

2013 to present

In March 2013, BT was allocated 4G spectrum in the UK following an auction and assignment by Ofcom, after paying £201.5m.

On 1 August 2013, BT launched its first television channels, BT Sport, to compete with rival broadcaster Sky Sports. Plans for the channels' launch came about when it was announced in June 2012 that BT had been awarded a package of broadcast rights for the Premier League from the 2013–14 to 2015–16 season, broadcasting 38 matches from each season. In February 2013, BT acquired ESPN Inc.'s UK and Ireland TV channels, continuing its expansion into sports broadcasting. ESPN America and ESPN Classic were both closed, while ESPN continued to be operated by BT. On 9 November 2013, BT announced it had acquired exclusive rights to the Champions League and Europa League for £897m, from the 2015 season, with some free games remaining including both finals.

On 1 November 2014, BT created a new central business services (CBS) organisation to provide customer services and improve operational efficiency levels.

On 24 November 2014, shares in BT rose considerably on the announcement that the company was in talks to buy back O2, while at the same time confirmed it was also in talks to acquire EE. BT subsequently entered into exclusive talks to buy EE for £12.5 billion on 15 December 2014 and confirmed on 5 February 2015, subject to regulatory approval. The deal will combine BT's 10 million retail customers and EE's 24.5 million direct mobile subscribers. Deutsche Telekom will own 12% of BT, while Orange S.A. will own 4%.

In March 2015, launched a 4G service as BT Mobile BT Group CEO Gavin Patterson announced that BT plans to migrate all of its customers onto the IP network by 2025, switching off the company's ISDN network.

On 15 January 2016, BT received final unconditional approval by the Competition and Markets Authority to acquire EE. The deal was officially completed on 29 January 2016 with Deutsche Telekom now owning 12% of BT, while Orange S.A. own 4%.

On 1 February 2016, BT announced a new organisational structure that will take effect from April 2016 following the successful acquisition of EE. The EE brand, network and high street stores will be retained and will become a second consumer division, operating alongside BT Consumer. It will serve customers with mobile services, broadband and TV and will continue to deliver the Emergency Services Network contract which was awarded to EE in late 2015. There will be a new BT Business and Public Sector division that will have around £5bn of revenues and will serve small and large businesses as well as the public sector in the UK and Ireland. It will comprise the existing BT Business division along with EE's business division and those parts of BT Global Services that are UK focused. There will also be another new division; BT Wholesale and Ventures that will comprise the existing BT Wholesale division along with EE's MVNO business as well as some specialist businesses such as Fleet, Payphones and Directories. Gerry McQuade, currently Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Business at EE, will be its CEO.

On 8 June 2017, BT appointed KPMG as its new auditor to replace PwC in the wake of the fraud scandal in Italy that triggered a major profit warning earlier that year. Also in of that year, KPMG fired six US employees over a scandal that calls into question efforts to ensure that public company accounts are being properly scrutinised.

On 8 July 2017, The Daily Telegraph reported that BT "has called in consultants from McKinsey to conduct a review of its businesses in the hope of saving hundreds of millions of pounds per year. The work, dubbed 'Project Novator', is understood to include a potential merger of BT's struggling global services corporate networking and IT unit with its business and public sector division".

On 28 July 2017, BT announced organisational changes to "simplify its operating model, strengthen accountabilities and accelerate its transformation" and involves bringing together its BT Consumer and EE divisions into a new unified BT Consumer division that will operate across three brands – BT, EE and Plusnet. It will take effect from 1 April 2018.

On 18 April 2018, BT announced further organisational changes following unification of its BT Consumer and EE divisions, and involves bringing together its BT Business and Public Sector and BT Wholesale and Ventures divisions into a new unified division known as BT Enterprise. It will also include BT's Ventures business which "acts as an incubator for potential new growth areas of the company" and will report as a single unit from 1 October 2018.

In June 2021, the French telecommunications company, Altice acquired a 12% stake in BT, increasing that stake to 18% in December 2021. Drahi's Altice increased its holding to 24.5% in May 2023. Drahi's purchase of 650 million shares cost about £960 million, at BT's share price of 147.85 pence at the close of trading on 22 May 2023.

Altice's increasing ownership in BT Group posed questions around the national security international ownership of the United Kingdoms infrastructure asset presented. The UK government opened an investigation in May 2022 to look into possible security implications of Patrick Drahi and Alrice's ownership. In August 2022 the Government concluded its investigation and Patrick Drahi would not be forced to cut his stake in BT after the UK government ruled the investment did not pose any national security concerns.

In July 2023, BT announced the appointment of Allison Kirkby as its new Chief Executive, replacing Philip Jansen by January 2024.

Operations

BT Group is a holding company; the majority of its businesses and assets are held by its wholly owned subsidiary British Telecommunications plc. BT's businesses are operated under special government regulation by the British telecoms regulator Ofcom (formerly Oftel). BT has been found to have significant market power in some markets following market reviews by Ofcom. In these markets, BT is required to comply with additional obligations such as meeting reasonable requests to supply services and not to discriminate.

BT runs the telephone exchanges, trunk network and local loop connections for the vast majority of British fixed-line telephones. Currently BT is responsible for approximately 28 million telephone lines in GB. Apart from KCOM Group, which serves Kingston upon Hull, BT is the only UK telecoms operator to have a Universal service Obligation, (USO) which means it must provide a fixed telephone line to any address in the UK. It is also obliged to provide public call boxes.

As well as continuing to provide service in those traditional areas in which BT has an obligation to provide services or is closely regulated, BT has expanded into more profitable products and services where there is less regulation. These are principally, broadband internet service and bespoke solutions in telecommunications and information technology.

Branding

In 2019, a simplified BT logo and brand was launched to replace the previous mutli-coloured globe logo. In April 2022, BT announced its intentions to focus on the EE brand for consumer products.

Corporate affairs

Buildings and facilities

As BT operates in around 180 countries, it owns and leases a range of buildings and facilities in the UK and around the world. In 2001, it sold some of its UK property portfolio for £2.38 billion to Telereal Trillium in a 30-year leaseback. The deal included 6,700 properties and contributed towards alleviating its debt at the time, with the main advantage being flexibility as it allows BT to vacate property over time, so as to adapt to changing operational requirements.

Headquarters

Until December 2021, BT Group's world headquarters and registered office was the BT Centre, a 10-storey office building at 81 Newgate Street in the City of London, opposite St Paul's tube station.  In November 2021 BT relocated to new headquarters at One Braham, a brand new 18-storey building completed earlier in 2021.

Buildings and stations
Some of its UK buildings and stations are:

 Adastral Park – headquarters of BT Labs in Suffolk
 The Assembly – building in Bristol
 Baynard House – building in City of London
 BT Riverside Tower – headquarters of BT Northern Ireland in Belfast
 BT Tower – building in Swansea
 Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station – satellite earth station in Cornwall
 Guardian telephone exchange – telephone exchange in Manchester
 Madley Communications Centre – satellite earth station in Herefordshire
 National Network Management Centre – network operations centre in Shropshire
 Stadium House – building in Cardiff

Telecommunications towers

BT remains one of the largest owners of telecommunications towers in the UK and were a major node in its microwave network. Its BT Tower in London is notable for numerous reasons such as being the tallest building in the UK from its construction in the 1960s until the early 1980s, its revolving restaurant at the top known as 'Top of the Tower' in operation through the late 1960s and 1970s, and remains one of the UK's most important communications nerve centres, the heart of a vast broadcasting and communications network. It carries approximately 95% of the UK's TV content, including live broadcasts and 99% of all live football games as well as pioneering the first international HD, 3D and 4K television transmissions. It serves media production and distribution customers around the world and as part of the Things Connected Network launched in London, it became the highest building in the world to host an Internet of things (IoT) base station in September 2016. Some of its towers are:

Other
Some of its other UK facilities are:

Divisions
BT Group is organised into the following divisions:

Customer facing
 BT Consumer – provides retail telecoms services to consumers in the UK including:
 BT Broadband
 BT Mobile
 BT Superfast Fibre
 BT TV
 BT Wi-fi
 EE – mobile network operator, provides mobile and fixed communications services to consumers in the UK
 Plusnet – internet service provider, provides mobile and fixed communications services to consumers in the UK
 TNT Sports (joint venture, operated by Warner Bros. Discovery)
 BT Business – products and services to organisations in the small-to-medium-sized business, corporate and public sectors in the UK and globally, and wholesale services. Formed from the merger of BT Enterprise and BT Global Services.
 Openreach – fenced-off wholesale division, established in 2005 following a review by Ofcom and commenced operations in 2006, employing 25,000 engineers previously employed by BT. Its purpose is to ensure that other communications providers have the same operational conditions as BT, and is responsible for the provision and repair in the "last mile" of copper wire.

Internal services
 Networks – Responsible for designing, building and running the networks and technology platforms that BT and its customers use.
 BT Research
 Digital – Responsible for leading BT's digital transformation, driving experience innovation and delivering the products and services customers use.
BT's procurement arm, "BT Sourced", was established in February 2021 and is based in Dublin.

Corporate governance

BT's board of directors as of November 2021:

BT's executive committee as of March 2018:

Pension fund
BT has the second largest defined benefit pension plan of any UK public company. The trustees valued the scheme at £36.7 billion at the end of 2010; an actuarial valuation valued the deficit of the scheme at £9.043 billion as of 31 December 2008.
Following a change in the regulations governing inflation index linking, the deficit was estimated at £5.2 billion in November 2010.

Sponsorships
BT sponsored Scotland's domestic rugby union championship and cup competitions between 1999 and 2006.

On 31 July 2012, it was announced that BT agreed a three-year sponsorship deal with Ulster Rugby and sees BT become the Official Communications Partner. BT's logo will appear on the Ulster Rugby shirt sleeve for all friendlies, Heineken Cup and RaboDirect Pro12 matches as well as a significant brand presence at their home ground; Ravenhill Stadium.

On 29 July 2013, it was announced that BT had partnered up with Scottish Rugby Union in a four-year sponsorship deal with its two professional clubs; Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors that will commence from August 2013. The deal involves BT Sport becoming the new shirt sponsor for both clubs as well as being promoted with BT Group at their respective home grounds; Scotstoun Stadium and Murrayfield Stadium.

On 13 May 2014, BT joined Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media as founding partners of Internet Matters, a not-for-profit organisation that provides online safety advice for parents and their children.

On 28 May 2014, it was announced that BT agreed a £20 million four-year sponsorship deal with Scottish Rugby Union which includes BT securing the naming rights for Murrayfield Stadium which becomes BT Murrayfield Stadium, become sponsor of the Scotland sevens team, become principal and exclusive sponsor of Scotland's domestic league and cup competitions from next season, taking over the role from The Royal Bank of Scotland and become sponsor of Scottish Rugby's four new academies that aims to drive forward standards for young players who have aspirations to play professionally.

On 14 April 2015, it was announced that as part of BT's current £20 million four-year sponsorship deal with Scottish Rugby Union that was announced in May 2014, BT has completed its sponsorship portfolio following an additional investment of £3.6 million for the 3 years remaining of its sponsorship deal, to become the new shirt sponsor for the Scotland national teams.

On 27 January 2016, it was announced that BT, alongside YouTube will be the new joint headline sponsors in a three-year deal with Edinburgh International Television Festival. The two companies will "share prominence across all branding of the 41st TV Festival, including the famous MacTaggart Lecture and will work closely with the festival organisers in their bid to reflect new trends in a rapidly transforming industry, from new ways of distributing content to technical innovations such as virtual reality".

BT is the founding and principal partner of the Wayne Rooney Foundation, which was established to improve the lives of children and young people. The Foundation will run events "to raise vital funds to support the work of key organisations dedicated to supporting disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people". These organisations are four chosen charities which are, Manchester United Foundation, NSPCC, Claire House Children's Hospice and Alder Hey Children's Hospital. The first of these events was Wayne's testimonial match in August 2016 between Manchester United F.C. and Everton F.C. which raised £1.2 million. The match was screened live through BT Sport with BT MyDonate being the official fundraising platform for the testimonial, with both online and text options for donations promoted during the match.

On 26 May 2017, it was announced that BT is to sponsor the 2017 British Urban Film Festival (BUFF) and sees BT host every event of the film festival, including the Awards at the BT Tower. BT will also broadcast the awards ceremony on BT.com and will have the opportunity to screen films acquired from the festival on its BT TV store platform.

On 6 September 2017, it was announced that BT had extended its current £20 million four-year sponsorship deal with Scottish Rugby Union that was announced in May 2014, for a further three years beginning from June 2018. The new deal sees BT retain the naming rights to BT Murrayfield Stadium, alongside its role as principal partner of the Scotland national team and Scotland 7s. BT's logo will continue to be displayed on the front of Scotland rugby shirts across the world, in the Six Nations Championship, as well as the summer and autumn test matches. BT will also continue to be promoted at Edinburgh Rugby and Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow.

Historical financial performance
BT's financial results have been as follows:

2008–present

1992–2007

Controversies

World Wide Web hyperlink patent
In 2001, BT discovered it owned a patent () which it believed gave it patent rights on the use of hyperlink technology on the World Wide Web. The corresponding UK patent had already expired, but the US patent was valid until 2006. On 11 February 2002, BT began a court case relating to its claims in a US federal court against the internet service provider Prodigy Communications Corporation.  In the case British Telecommunications plc v. Prodigy, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled on 22 August 2002 that the BT patent was not applicable to web technology and granted Prodigy's request for summary judgment of non-infringement.

Behavioural targeting
In early 2008 it was announced that BT had entered into a contract (along with Virgin Media and TalkTalk) with the spyware company Phorm (responsible under their 121Media guise for the Apropos rootkit) to intercept and analyse their users' click-stream data and sell the anonymised aggregate information as part of Phorm's OIX advertising service. The practice, known as "behavioural targeting" and condemned by critics as "data pimping", came under intense fire from various internet communities and other interested-parties who believe that the interception of data without the consent of users and web site owners is illegal under UK law (RIPA). At a more fundamental level, many have argued that the ISPs and Phorm have no right to sell a commodity (a user's data, and the copyrighted content of web sites) to which they have no claim of ownership. In response to questions about Phorm and the interception of data by the Webwise system Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, indicated his disapproval of the concept and is quoted as saying of his data and web history:

Huawei infrastructure access
Beginning in 2010 the UK intelligence community investigated Huawei, the Chinese supplier of BT's new fibre infrastructure with increasing urgency after the United States, Canada and Australia prevented the company from operating in their countries. Although BT had notified the UK government in 2003 of Huawei's interest in their £10bn network upgrade contract, they did not raise the security implications as BT failed to explain that the Chinese company would have unfettered access to critical infrastructure. On 16 December 2012 the then prime minister David Cameron was supplied with an in-depth report indicating that the intelligence services had very grave doubts regarding Huawei, and that UK governmental, military, and civilian privacy may have been under serious threat.

On 7 June 2013, British lawmakers concluded that BT should not have allowed Huawei access to the UK's communications network without ministerial oversight, saying they were 'deeply shocked' that BT did not inform government that they were allowing Huawei and ZTE, both with ties to the Chinese military, unfettered access to critical national systems. Furthermore, ministers discovered that the agency with the responsibility to ensure Chinese equipment and code was threat-free was entirely staffed by Huawei employees. Subsequently, parliamentarians confirmed that in case of an attack on the UK there was nothing that could be done to stop Chinese infiltration.

By 2016 Huawei had put measures in place to ensure the integrity of UK national security. Specifically their UK work is now overseen by a board that includes directors from GCHQ, the Cabinet Office and the Home Office.

ZTE, another Chinese company that supplies extensive network equipment and subscriber hardware used with BT 'Infinity', was also under scrutiny by parliament's intelligence and security committee after the US, Canada, Australia and the European Union declared the company a security risk.

In 2020 following a government ruling, BT began removing Huawei equipment from its broadband and mobile networks in order to comply with new restrictions on the usage of Huawei equipment. As of 2023, the process is still ongoing.

Alleged complicity with drone strikes in Yemen and Somalia
In September 2012, BT entered into a $23 million deal with the US military to provide a key communications cable connecting RAF Croughton, a US military base on UK soil, with Camp Lemonnier, a large US base in Djibouti. Camp Lemonnier is used as a base for American drone attacks in Yemen and Somalia, and has been described by The Economist as "the most important base for drone operations outside the war zone of Afghanistan."

Human rights groups including Reprieve and Amnesty International have criticised the use of armed drones outside declared war zones. Evidence produced by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Stanford University's International Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic suggest that drone strikes have caused substantial civilian casualties, and may be illegal under international law.

In 2013, BT was the subject of a complaint by Reprieve to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, following their refusal to explain whether or not their infrastructure was used to facilitate drone strikes. The subsequent refusal of this complaint was appealed in May 2014, on the basis that the UK National Contact Point's decision did not follow the OECD Guidelines. The issue of bias was also raised, due to the appointment of Lord Ian Livingston as government minister for the department which was processing the complaint: Livingston had occupied a senior position at BT when the cable between RAF Croughton and Camp Lemonnier was originally built.

Overcharging
In February 2017, a review of the telecoms market by Ofcom found that BT's landline only contracts provided poor value to customers. Ofcom ordered BT to reduce their prices but stopped short of demanding that customers were compensated. In January 2021, Law firm Mishcon de Reya filed a claim with the Competition Appeal Tribunal against BT worth £600 million, accusing them of historic overcharging on landlines. The class action lawsuit claims BT have increased their prices for line-only services every year since 2009, whilst the wholesale cost for delivering these services has reduced. The claimants suggest that customers could be entitled to compensation of up to £500 each.

Bidding rules violation
In 2020, BT was fined £6.3m by the telecoms regulator Ofcom for violating the law on a large public sector deal in Northern Ireland. Under Ofcom's regulations, the BT network shall handle all wholesale customers similarly. In its report, Ofcom found that BT's network violated the rules by failing to supply Eir with the same details on its on-demand fiber-to-the-premises offering as its own rival team.

Historical documents
Records of the Post Office Corporation (Telecommunications division) 19691981 and its predecessors (including Post Office Telegraph and Telephone Service 18641969 and some private telegraph and telephone companies) are Public Records, and are held by BT Archives.

See also

 List of telephone operating companies
 UK telephone area codes (STD codes)

References

Further reading

 Baldwin, F.G.C.  The History of the Telephone in the United Kingdom (1925)
 Foreman-Peck, J. "The development and diffusion of telephone technology in Britain, 1900–1940," Transactions of the Newcomen Society, (1991–92).  63, pp165–180.
 Foreman-Peck, J., & Millward, R. Public and private ownership of British industry 1820–1990 (1994).
 Hazlewood, A. "The origins of the state telephone service in Britain" Oxford Economic Papers (1953).  5:13–25. in JSTOR

 Johannessen, Neil. Ring up Britain: the Early Years of the Telephone in the United Kingdom (British Telecommunications plc, London, 1991)
 Johnston, S. F. "The telephone in Scotland." in: K. Veitch, ed., Transport and Communications. Publications of the European Ethnological Research Centre; Scottish life and society: a compendium of Scottish ethnology (2009): pp. 716–727 online
 Magill, Frank N. Great Events from History II: Business and Commerce Series, volume 1:1897–1923 (1994) pp 218–23; historiography
 Meyer, Hugo Richard. Public Ownership and the Telephone in Great Britain: Restriction of the Industry by the State and the Municipalities (1907).  online
 Pitt, D.C. The telecommunications function in the British Post Office. A case study of bureaucratic adaption (Westmead: Saxon House, 1980).
 Robertson, John Henry. The story of the telephone: A history of the telecommunications industry of Britain (1947)

External links

 BT Archives
 BT Archives online catalogue
 BT Login Links

1846 establishments in the United Kingdom
1912 establishments in the United Kingdom
1969 establishments in the United Kingdom
1981 establishments in the United Kingdom
British royal warrant holders
Companies based in the City of London
Telecommunications companies established in 1846
Telecommunications companies established in 1912
Telecommunications companies established in 1969
Telecommunications companies established in 1981
British companies established in 1846
British companies established in 1912
British companies established in 1969
British companies established in 1981
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Internet service providers of the United Kingdom
Multinational companies based in the City of London
Telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom
1960s initial public offerings
1980s initial public offerings
Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom
History of telecommunications in the United Kingdom

BT Group


Susan Brittain Ganong B.Sc., LLD (March 18, 1873 – April 29, 1961) was a widely respected Canadian educator and proprietor of the Netherwood School for girls in the Province of New Brunswick.

She was born in Carleton, New Brunswick (now West Saint John), and was known in the family as "Suzie" in order to distinguish her from her mother with the same first name. Her family moved to  the town of St. Stephen where her father and uncle Gilbert founded the Ganong Bros. chocolate company. Susan Ganong is the sister of businessmen Edwin and Arthur, and to botanist and educator William. Her sister Kit married Howard P. Whidden, Chancellor of McMaster University in Ontario.

Susan Granong graduated from St. Stephen High School and obtained her teaching certificate from the Normal School in Fredericton. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where her brother William was a professor.

Ganong taught school in her hometown for three years and taught science for four years at Halifax Ladies' College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1903, she joined the faculty of the Netherwood School, an exclusive private school for girls in Rothesay, New Brunswick. At the time, the school was in severe difficulty and had less than ten students but as co-principal with Miss Ethelwyn Pitcher, she took over the lease of the building and implemented ideas and improvements so that by 1905 enrollment had increased to thirty-three students. In 1912, Susan Ganong purchased the facility, expanding its facilities further and increasing the School's emphasis on academic excellence to a point where the school gained a reputation internationally as  school of high scholastic standing. She advanced the learning of music and art and arranged for musicians, artists, and art exhibitions to appear at  the school. She also put in place a program for the teaching of the French language, a pioneering effort in a very English institution designed to develop an understanding between Canada's two founding cultures.

Outside of her school, Ganong was active in the YWCA organization and the New Brunswick Museum. In 1943, she received an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of New Brunswick as an acknowledgment of her substantial contributions to education in the province of New Brunswick. After leading the Netherwood School for forty-one years, in 1944 Dr. Ganong sold the institution to the Netherwood Foundation Limited. Although retired, she resided in her cottage on the school's grounds for the remainder of her life. In 1952, she published A Sketch of Life at Netherwood, the Rothesay School for Girls.

Susan Ganong died on April 29, 1961, in Rothesay and was buried with family members in the St. Stephen Rural Cemetery. The Netherwood School offers the Dr. Susan B. Ganong Memorial Scholarship and the Susan B. Ganong Theater, built in 1997, was named in her memory. Her portrait by Kenneth Forbes hangs in the dining hall at the school.

References
Telegraph-Journal, May 1, 1961, Obituary for Susan Ganong
 Folster, David. The Chocolate Ganongs of St. Stephen, New Brunswick (1991) Goose Lane Editions
 Craigs, Melodie. Ganong, The Candy Family (1984) Literacy Council of Fredericton
Detailed history of Netherwood School
Profile of Susan Ganong by Margaret Bourne for the Rothesay Area Heritage Trust

1873 births
1961 deaths
Canadian Baptists
Smith College alumni
Businesspeople from Saint John, New Brunswick
Heads of schools in Canada
Susan

Susan B. Ganong


Moussa Mohamed Kalifa (موسى محمد خليفة) (born in 1967) is a Libyan citizen who was charged with being a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and accused of participating in terrorism after he attempted to move to Canada as a refugee under a false name in 2001.

Life
In 1993, Kalifa traveled to Damascus to study Islamic scholarship, but was arrested by Yemeni authorities five years later for failing to have any identification papers. He had spent two years studying at the Islamic Institute, and four years teaching children.

He left Yemen for Tanzania, but was detained after the 1998 bombing of the American embassy in Tanzania and questioned for twenty days.

Leaving Tanzania, Kalifa sought refugee status in Italy where he lived for approximately three years. After his four months of government-sponsored housing expired, he was homeless and lived on the streets for approximately a year, before being offered a 6-month position as an Imam at a Moroccan mosque. He then decided to try and immigrate to Canada.

Immigration to Canada
Kalifa purchased a travel ticket, under the false name El Lorrehane which appeared on his forged Italian passport, to take him from Madrid to New York City to Quebec City.

Upon his arrival, on August 6, 2001, he introduced himself by his legitimate name to Customs officer Nathalie Hamel, requesting refugee status and stating that he had destroyed his false passport on the flight. She referred him to the Immigration officers on-site, to whom he introduced himself as Mohamed Ahmed Alhimede which they believed to be his proper name.

Over the next three days he was processed, and intelligence officers became suspicious that he was in fact Kalifa, presenting him with a photograph which he denied was himself despite "a certain resemblance". Although he was traveling on a forged Italian passport, and his luggage contained Italian clothing and a business card from Rome, he initially denied ever traveling to Italy; as well as Yemen, Tanzania or Germany. He later confessed to his identity and travels. He maintained that while he was a Salafist preacher, his group had no ties to the GSPC

References

1967 births
Living people
Libyan revolutionaries

Moussa Mohamed Kalifa


Frank James Low (November 23, 1933 – June 11, 2009) was a solid state physicist who became a leader in the new field of infrared astronomy, after inventing the gallium doped germanium bolometer in 1961. This detector extended the range of the observable spectrum to much longer wavelengths.

Early life and education
Born on November 23, 1933, in Mobile, Alabama, Low grew up as a child in Houston, Texas. His undergraduate studies in physics were at Yale University and he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in physics from Rice University in 1959.

Infrared astronomy
He started working at Texas Instruments in 1961, where one of his early projects was the development of a low-temperature thermometer that was developed using a germanium semiconductor that had been doped with small quantities of gallium, which measured changes in temperature based on the change in the device's electrical resistance as energy was absorbed. Based on his academic experiences, he came to the conclusion that the technology behind this thermometer could be integrated as the basis for a bolometer that could be used to measure the radiant energy coming from stars as infrared radiation, waves that occupy a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum whose wavelength is longer than for visible light (400–700 nm), but shorter than those of terahertz radiation (100 µm – 1 mm) or microwaves.

Astronomers had been trying to find measures to detect infrared radiation for years, and Low went to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, in 1962 to test his bolometer, more sensitive to infrared than detectors previously in use on the Green Bank Telescope, the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope. However, infrared waves are absorbed by molecules such as water vapor in the atmosphere.

To avoid atmospheric absorption of infrared radiation, Low developed devices that could be placed aboard aircraft, first using a Douglas A-3 Skywarrior from the United States Navy that carried a 2-inch telescope in 1965 and 1966, and later using a Learjet operated by NASA with a 12-inch telescope on board. Low used the Learjet to make the discovery that both Jupiter and Saturn were emitting more energy than what they receive as solar radiation, demonstrating that both of these planets must have an internal source of energy. Low continued to use the Learjet for research, even after NASA started use of the Kuiper Airborne Observatory in 1975 using a former C-141 Starlifter cargo craft, which is to be replaced with Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint NASA and German Aerospace Center project that uses a converted Boeing 747SP.

He had worked at Rice University and at the University of Arizona. He was also the president of Infrared Laboratories, Inc., which he founded in 1967 to make infrared detectors and cryostats for observatories and infrared microscopes as well.

He proposed and joined the international project to build the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS), a project that included joint efforts from the United States, United Kingdom and the Netherlands, which made the first survey of the infrared sky from space, avoiding all atmospheric interference with observations, starting in 1983. Low served as the chief technologist for the project. After an accident at Jet Propulsion Laboratory destroyed preamplifiers used in the infrared detectors, Low led an effort at Infrared Laboratories to develop improved replacement units to resolve the crisis. IRAS was able to discover in excess of 500,000 infrared sources, including many galaxies, and has discovered shells of debris surrounding stars that show the early stages of planetary formation, with debris similar to that later found as the Kuiper belt that encircles our Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune. Based on these findings, researchers have concluded that the majority of galactic radiation is emitted in the form of infrared radiation that is generated when light from young stars is absorbed by interstellar dust and then radiated from the dust in the form of heat. In 1984, IRAS found that the galaxy Arp 220, located 300 million light years from Earth, is the closest Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxy, emitting 100 times more energy than the Milky Way galaxy, primarily in the infrared spectrum, even though it is faintly visible by telescope using visible light.

Low was named to serve as facility scientist for NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility, later renamed the Spitzer Space Telescope. The effort had been delayed by cost overruns, until Low had an inspiration at a 1993 retreat for the project's scientists; the passive cooling technique could be used – rather than place the entire telescope in a bath of liquid helium to cool the unit to temperatures near absolute zero, the unit could be exposed to the vacuum of space to radiate most of its heat while the detectors themselves were the only components cooled using liquid helium, a design change that allowed the Spitzer project to go ahead towards its launch in 2003. Timothy Hawarden has been recognized by NASA for the development of the passive cooling technique, which has also been included in other space probes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, a partial successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, that will search for the oldest objects in the universe.

Personal
Low died at age 75 on June 11, 2009, in Tucson, Arizona, after a long illness. He was survived by his wife, three children and six grandchildren.

Honors
Awards
Rumford Prize (1986)
Helen Warner Prize (1968)
Joseph Weber Award (2003)
Jansky Lectureship before the National Radio Astronomy Observatory(2006)
Bruce Medal (2006)
Named after him
Kleinmann–Low Nebula (with Douglas E. Kleinmann)
Asteroid 12142 Franklow

References

External links

Infrared Laboratories
Bruce Medal bio
George H. Rieke, "Frank J. Low", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2014)

1933 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American astronomers
20th-century American physicists
Rice University alumni
Yale University alumni
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Frank J. Low


The Alcobaça Monastery or Alcobasa Monastery (, Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Alcobaça) is a Catholic monastic complex located in the town of Alcobaça (or Alcobasa, ), in central Portugal,  north of Lisbon and  south of Coimbra.

The monastery was established in 1153 by the first Portuguese king, Afonso Henriques, and would develop a close association with the Portuguese monarchy throughout its seven-century-long history. This association led to the monastery becoming the richest and most influential in Portugal by 1300, with a population of almost 1,000 monks and business interests including farming, fishing and trade. It closed in 1834, amid the dissolution of the monasteries in Portugal.

The church and monastery were the first Gothic buildings in Portugal, and, together with the roughly older Augustinian Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, it was one of the most important mediaeval monasteries in Portugal. Due to its artistic, cultural and historical relevance, it was included in UNESCO's World Heritage Site list in 1989.

History

The Alcobaça Monastery is one of the first buildings associated with the Cistercian Order in Portugal. It was founded in 1153 as a gift from the first Portuguese king, Afonso I or Afonso Henriques (1112–1185), to Bernard of Clairvaux, following the king's conquest of the city of Santarém from the Moors in March 1147. The foundation of the monastery was part of a larger strategy by King Afonso I to assert his authority and promote the colonisation of lands recently conquered from the Moors during the Reconquista.

Construction began in 1178, some 25 years after the first Cistercian monks settled in the Alcobaça region. Initially, the monks lived in wooden houses and would only move to the newly built monastery in 1223. The church proper wasn't completed until 1252. The church and the adjacent monastery are the earliest examples of truly Gothic architecture in Portugal and the church itself was the largest in Portugal at the time of its completion. The final touch in this large medieval ensemble was given in the late 13th century, when King Denis I (1261–1325) ordered the construction of the Gothic cloister, also known as the Cloister of Silence.

The monks dedicated their lives to religious meditation, creating illuminated manuscripts in a scriptorium. The monks from the monastery produced an early authoritative history on Portugal in a series of books. The library at Alcobaça was one of the largest Portuguese medieval libraries, but was pillaged by the invading French in 1810, and many items were stolen in an anti-clerical riot in 1834, when the religious orders in Portugal were dissolved. The remnants of the monastery library, including hundreds of medieval manuscripts, are kept today in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Portugal's national library in Lisbon.

During the Middle Ages, the monastery quickly became a powerful and influential presence within the kingdom of Portugal. The monastery owned and developed extensive agriculture areas, and the abbot exerted influence over a large area. A public school was opened in 1269. The importance of the monastery can be measured by the fact that many monarchs were buried here in the 13th and 14th centuries. Kings Afonso II and Afonso III and their queens, Urraca of Castile and Beatrice of Castile, respectively, are buried here, as well as King Pedro I and his mistress, Inês de Castro, who was murdered on the orders of Pedro's father, King Afonso IV. After being crowned king, Pedro commissioned two magnificent Gothic tombs for himself and his mistress, both of which can still be seen inside the monastery church.

During the reign of Manuel I, a second floor was added to the cloister and a new sacristy was built, following the characteristic Portuguese late Gothic style known as "Manueline". The monastery was further enlarged in the 18th century, with the addition of a new cloister and towers to the church, although the medieval structure was mostly preserved. In the Baroque period, the monks were famous for their clay sculptures, many of them are still inside the monastery. Elaborate tiles and altarpieces completed the decoration of the church.

The great 1755 Lisbon earthquake did not cause significant damage to the monastery, although part of the sacristy and some smaller buildings were destroyed. Far greater damage was caused by invading French troops in the first years of the 19th century during the Peninsular War, itself a part of the Napoleonic Wars. In addition to looting the library, they robbed the tombs and stole and burnt part of the inner decoration of the church. In 1834, with the dissolution of the monasteries in Portugal, the last monks left the monastery.

Alcobaça Monastery was classified as a National Monument on January 1, 1907, and included in the special protection zone on August 16, 1957.

Art and architecture
The Alcobaça Monastery was built following an early Gothic style and represents the arrival of this style in Portugal. The church and other main buildings were constructed from 1178 until the end of the 13th century. The church was consecrated in 1252. Following the precepts of the Cistercian Order, the original monastic buildings were built along lean architectonic lines, without any decoration apart from some capital sculpture and a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Exterior
The main façade of the monastery has two plain-style wings with the church in the middle. The façade of the church is a mix of styles: the portal and the rose window above were part of the original church, while the statues and the two flanking towers were added in the beginning of the 18th century. The side walls of the church have crenellations and the apse has eight flying buttresses to support the weight of the vault of the apse, a typical feature of Gothic architecture.

Interior of the church
The first architect(s) of the church, most probably of French origin, followed the design of the Abbey of Clairvaux (now mostly demolished), which had been founded by Bernard of Clairvaux in 1115. The church is a Latin-cross building with pronounced transept arms and three aisles. The lateral aisles of the nave are as high (20 metres) as the central one, which together with the relative slenderness of the church (17 metres) and large length (106 metres) conveys an impression of monumentality. Alcobaça remains, after 800 years, the largest Portuguese church. The vertical emphasis observed in the building is a typical Gothic feature.

Columns and walls are devoid of decoration, as required in Cistercian churches, and the interior is very brightly illuminated by rows of windows on the walls and rose windows on the main façade and transept arms. The main chapel, like that of Clairvaux, is surrounded by a gallery (ambulatory) and has a series of radiating chapels. The aisles are covered by simple Gothic vaulting.

Royal tombs
In the transept of the church are located the tombs of King Pedro I and his mistress, Inês de Castro, who was assassinated in 1355 by order of Pedro's father, King Afonso IV. After becoming king, Pedro ordered the remains of his beloved to be transferred to her tomb in Alcobaça and, according to a popular legend, had her crowned as queen of Portugal and ordered court members to pay her homage by kissing her decomposing hand.

This pair of royal tombs in Alcobaça, of unknown authorship, are among the best works of Gothic sculpture in Portugal. The tombs are supported by lions, in the case of the king, and half-men half-beasts, in the case of Ines, and both carry the recumbent figures of the deceased assisted by a group of angels. The sides of Pedro's tomb are magnificently decorated with reliefs showing scenes from Saint Bartholomew's life, as well as scenes from Pedro and Ines' life. Her tomb is decorated with scenes from the life of Christ, including the Crucifixion and the Last Judgement.

Chapel of Saint Bernard
This chapel, located in the south side of the transept, has a sculptural group depicting the "Death of Saint Bernard", one of the best works authored by 17th-century Alcobaça monks. In both sides of the chapel are buried Kings Afonso II and Afonso III.

Royal Pantheon
From the right arm of the transept, one reaches the Royal Pantheon, a room built in the end of the 18th century in Neo-Gothic style, being the earliest Neo-Gothic architecture in Portugal.

The Royal Pantheon has the 13th-century tombs of two queens of Portugal, Urraca of Castile and Beatrix of Castile, married respectively to Kings Afonso II and Afonso III. There are smaller tombs of unidentified princes. The most remarkable tomb is that of Queen Urraca (died in 1220), buried in a richly decorated late Romanesque tomb. A relief showing the queen is seen over the tomb, and the sides are decorated with the Apostles under a round arched gallery. Other reliefs show the king, surrounded by their children, mourning the late queen, as well as Christ surrounded by a mandorla and the symbols of the four Evangelists. Other tombs are richly decorated with arabesques of Mudéjar-Romanesque style, as well as the Apostles.

Sacristy
From the ambulatory the sacristy of the church can be reached. The sacristy had been built in Manueline style in the early 16th century, but had to be rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake. The corridor leading to the sacristy, covered by a splendid Manueline rib vaulting, and the portal to the sacristy have survived the earthquake. The portal is a framed by intertwined vegetal branches that carry the coat-of-arms of Portugal.

Room of the Kings
This room, located close to the entrance of the church, has a series of 17th–18th century statues representing the kings of Portugal. The walls are decorated with blue-white 18th century tiles that tell the history of the Monastery of Alcobaça, since its foundation by Afonso Henriques.

Dormitory
The dormitory is a large Gothic room where the monks slept together; only the abbot was allowed to have his own room. In the 16th century the space was divided into individual cells. In the 1930s the cell walls were demolished.

Refectory
The refectory was the room in which the monks had their meals every day. While they ate, one of the monks read aloud passages of the Bible from a pulpit, which in Alcobaça is embedded into one of the walls. Access to the pulpit is through an arched gallery with a staircase. The pulpit is one of the most harmonious architectural structures of the monastery. Like the dormitory, the refectory has many pillars separating aisles and is covered by early gothic rib vaulting.

Cloister of Silence
The cloister of the monastery was built during the reign of, and sponsored by, King Dinis I. It is one of the largest medieval Cistercian cloisters in Europe. Its columns are decorated by capitals with animal and vegetal motifs. The builder was the Portuguese architect Domingo Domingues. The Gothic Fountain Hall has an elegant early Renaissance water basin inside, decorated with Renaissance motifs including the coat-of-arms of the monastery. The second floor of the cloister, in Manueline style as revealed by its typical twisted columns, was built in the early 16th century.

Chapter House
This room, where the monks gathered to discuss the daily matters concerning the monastery, was the most important room after the church. Their daily gathering began by listening to the reading of a chapter from the Rule of St Benedict. The entrance to the house is through a Romanesque-style portal with two similar windows on each side. The room is now filled with Baroque statues created by the monks for the main chapel of the church.

Kitchen
The kitchen of the monastery was built and covered with tiles in the mid-18th century. The central chimney is enormous, supported by eight iron columns. Water and fresh fish were diverted from the river Alcoa to the kitchen basin through a specially built canal.

See also
 Monastery of Batalha
 Monastery of Santa Cruz
 Alcobasa
 Azulejo

References

  Maria Augusta Pablo Trindade Ferreira. Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Alcobaça. ELO-IPPAR. 2nd edition, 1993.
  Mosteiro de Alcobaça, Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico (Portuguese Institute for Architectural Heritage)
  Mosteiro de Alcobaça / Real Abadia de Santa Maria de Alcobaça (PDF), Direcção Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais (Portuguese General Bureau for National Buildings and Monuments)

External links

 Description of the Monastery of Alcobasa from UNESCO
The Monastery of Alcobaça on Google Arts & Culture
 Adrian Fletcher's Paradoxplace Alcobaça Pages
 Site about Alcobaça (photos)
 Virtual tour of the Monastery of Alcobasa
 ALCOBASA Y BATALHA DOS MONASTERIOS DE PORTUGAL
 Catarina Fernandes Barreira Monasterios cistercienses en Portugal no siglo XV: problemas alrededor de los scriptoria e bibliotecas
 Monasterio de Alcobasa: un ejemplo destacado de arquitectura gótica

1153 establishments in Europe
12th-century establishments in Portugal
1834 disestablishments in Portugal
Religious organizations established in the 1150s
Christian monasteries established in the 12th century
Gothic architecture in Portugal
World Heritage Sites in Portugal
Alcobaca
Centro Region
Burial sites of the Castilian House of Burgundy
Roman Catholic monasteries in Portugal
UNESCO
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1252

es:Monasterio de Alcobasa#top

Alcobaça Monastery


Johann Grueber (28 October 1623, Linz – 30 September 1680, Sárospatak, Hungary) was an Austrian Jesuit missionary and astronomer in China, and noted explorer.

Life

He joined the Society of Jesus in 1641 and went to China in 1656, where he was active at the court of Peking as professor of mathematics and assistant to Father Adam Schall von Bell. In 1661 his superiors sent him, together with the Belgian Father Albert Dorville (D'Orville), to Rome in order to defend Schall's work on the Chinese calendar (He was accused of encouraging 'superstitious practices').

As it was impossible to journey by sea on account of the blockade of Macau by the Dutch, they conceived the daring idea of going overland from Peking to Goa (India) by way of Tibet and Nepal. This led to Grueber's memorable journey (Dorville died on the way), which won him fame as one of the most successful explorers of the seventeenth century (Tonnier). They first travelled to Sinning-fu, on the borders of Kan-su; thence through the Kukunor territory and Kalmyk Tartary (Desertum Kalnac) to Lhasa. They crossed the difficult mountain passes of the Himalayas, arrived at Kathmandu, Nepal, and thence descended into the  basin of the Ganges: Patna and Agra, the former capital of the Mughal empire. This journey lasted 214 days.

Dorville died at Agra, a victim of the hardships he had undergone. Jesuit Father Heinrich Roth, a Sanskrit scholar, substituted for Dorville and with Grueber carried on the overland journey through Persia and Turkey, reaching Rome on the 2 February 1664. Their journey showed the possibility of a direct overland connection between China and India, and the value and significance of the Himalayan passes.

Biographer Richard Tronnier says: "It is due to Grueber's energy that Europe received the first correct information concerning Thibet and its inhabitants". Although Oderico of Pordenone had traversed Tibet, in 1327, and visited Lhasa, he had not written any account of this journey. Antonio de Andrada and Manuel Marquez had pushed their explorations as far as Tsaparang on the northern Setledj.

Emperor Leopold I requested that Grueber return to China via Russia in order to explore the possibility of another land route through central Asia, but the journey ended at Constantinople as Grueber fell seriously sick. He was obliged to return. Though in poor health Grueber lived another 14 years as preacher and spiritual guide in the Jesuit schools of Trnava (Slovakia) and Sárospatak (Hungary) where he died in 1680.

Literature on his journey

An account of this first journey through Tibet in modern times by a European was published by Athanasius Kircher to whom Grueber had left his journals and charts, which he had supplemented by numerous verbal and written additions ("China illustrata", Amsterdam, 1667, 64-67). In the French edition of "China" (Amsterdam, 1670) is also incorporated a letter of Grueber written to the Duke of Tuscany.

For letters of Grueber see "Neue Welt-Bott" (Augsburg and Gratz, 1726), no. 34; Thévenot (whose acquaintance Grueber had made in Constantinople), "Divers voyages curieux" (Paris, 1666, 1672, 1692), II; extracts in Ritter, "Asien" (Berlin, 1833), II, 173; III, 453; IV, 88, 183; Anzi, "II genio vagante" (Parma, 1692), III, 331-399.

References

Carlieri, Notizie varie dell' Imperio della China (Florence, 1697)
Ashley, Collection of voyages (London, 1745–47), IV, 651sq

Von Richthofen, China (Berlin, 1877), 761, etc., with routes and plate, the best monograph
Tronnier, Die Durchquerung Tibets seitens der Jesuiten Joh. Grueber und Albert de Dorville im Jahre 1661 in Zeitschr, d. Ges.fur Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1904, pp. 328–361
Wessels, C., Early Jesuit Travellers in Central Asia, The Hague, 1924, pp. 164–203.

External links

1623 births
1665 deaths
17th-century Austrian Jesuits
Jesuit missionaries in China
Austrian Roman Catholic missionaries
Explorers of Asia
Christian missionaries in Central Asia
Explorers of Central Asia
Roman Catholic missionaries in China
Roman Catholic missionaries in Tibet
Austrian astronomers
Jesuit scientists
People from Linz
Jesuit missionaries in India
Explorers of India
Explorers of Nepal

Johann Grueber


Backyard cricket, also known as Bat ball, street cricket, beach cricket, corridor cricket, garden cricket, and box cricket (in instances of shorter grounds), is colloquially referred to as gully cricket in the Indian subcontinent. This informal variant of cricket is an universally inclusive game, welcoming all genders and ages. It is typically played in various non-traditional venues such as gardens, backyards, streets, parks, carparks, beaches, and any area not specifically designed for the sport.

Backyard cricket has connotations to the pastimes of Australian, South African and New Zealand and English    children who frequently lived on properties with large backyards, providing the facility to play this informal game of sport often with friends, family and neighbor. In the South Asian region, gully cricket is very popular.

Overview

Though loosely based upon the game of cricket, many aspects are improvised: the playing ground, the rules, the teams, and the equipment. Quite often there are no teams at all; the players take turns at batting and there is often no emphasis on actually scoring runs.

Equipment and field:
The bat can be anything, as long as it can hit the ball and can be suitably held in the hands. However, usage of a bat is necessary.
A ball is the other essential item.
Tennis balls are often used as they are less likely to inflict injuries than a cricket ball. They are also much cheaper and more readily available than a leather cricket ball and are easier to hit due to their slower air-speed and relative lightness. Tennis balls also bounce more than normal cricket balls, especially at low speeds.
Sometimes a tennis ball will be heavily taped on one side to give the ball extra 'swing'. This is known as a 'swing ball'—swing balls may be made with: gaffer tape, electrical tape, plumbing tape or any other kind of tape available. A completely taped tennis ball is very popular for street cricket in Pakistan as the electric tape makes the ball heavier and less bouncy as compared to a normal tennis ball but it is still relatively harmless as compared to a real cricket ball.
The pitch can be any stretch of ground that is reasonably flat.
The wicket may be any convenient object – a chair, a cardboard box, a set of long twigs or sticks, a rubbish bin, tree or a drawing on the wall.  Often, the wicket is by no means close to the official size, but it is used anyway.
A wicket at the non-striker's end is generally a single stump if proper stumps are available and in the absence of larger objects may be just a hat or a shoe.  Its main purpose is to mark the bowler's crease, but can be instrumental when there are two batters and one may be run out.

Games with relatively few players typically forgo the teams and innings format of professional cricket, opting instead for a batters-vs-everyone format.

Garden/backyard cricket in South Africa and Australia is considered by many to be the pinnacle event of social and sporting excellence in the summer period. Many games are paired with a barbecue which often has a carnival atmosphere. It is historically very popular on Australia Day.

Several closely related variants of cricket exist in South America, known as bete-ombro, taco, bets, or plaquita.

Rules

As a generally informal contest, the rules are flexible but usually agreed upon by the players prior to playing it. Below are listed some of the most common rules.

Backyard cricket allows for rules to be changed, and the rules being played by will depend on the context and physical environment of the game, and the traditions and experience of the players. However, some rules are relatively common:
No ducks – A batter cannot be given out without scoring. Dismissals are ignored until the batter scores at least one run.
First/Trial ball rule; Can't get out first ball: A stricter alternative to "no ducks" whereby a batter cannot be given out on the first ball they face (known as "trial ball" in the subcontinent). This and the "no golden ducks" rule are commonly applied to those with little cricketing skill.
 Equipment and field
Wicket material – If stumps are unavailable or unsuitable, any other material object may be used, with garbage bins (especially wheelie bins) being common, and some people also use stickers or paint lines on them to restrict the "stump area" of the object to a more realistic size.
Pitch – The pitch should be between 11 and 33 yards (10 to 30 meters), with limiting factors such as backyard size often dictating the length.
Ways of getting out:
One Hand, One Bounce – If the batter has hit the ball into the ground, but it has only bounced once, they can still be given out caught, but only if the fielder catches the ball with one hand; even if the hand hits the ground, the player is out. Another variation of this rule is a one-handed catch off the roof or fence, or some other specific structure local to the backyard in which the game is played is also out.
One Hand, One Bounce, One Beer – An alternate to the rule of One Hand, One Bounce, where the fielder must also be in possession of a beverage (traditionally a beer) in order to enact the rule and get the batter out. However, spilling a significant proportion of the beverage may be deemed enough to nullify the catch.
No LBW – As many backyard cricket games are without umpires, or self-umpired, or played with juniors, teams may agree to not use the relatively difficult LBW rule.
Another alternative is "Auto-LBW", by which the batter is always deemed to be out in almost any possible LBW scenario; it also has the effects of discouraging purely defensive batting, and typically increases the rotation of batsmen.
 Three hits on the body can get the batter out in gully cricket, wicket (sport) and bete-ombro.
Six and Out – If the ball is hit over the fence, the batter is out, and is obliged to retrieve the ball. The six runs are awarded to the batter to reflect the great shot that they have hit. This rule is especially popular in small backyards (where the rule may be applied to any ball that lands over the fence, not just sixes), and encourages the batter to exercise control and restraint by aiming for fours instead of sixes. In street cricket, the rule applies if the ball goes into the neighbour's front garden/yard. Six-and-out is also often extended to include nearby fragile objects such as windows and cars which are declared out-of-bounds; if a ball hits an out-of-bounds object on the full it is deemed six-and-out, even if no damage is evident.
Automatic Wickie — (also known as Electric Wickie/Keeper) If playing in front of a garage door or similar, the structure takes on the role of wicket keeper. Any balls making contact with the Auto Wickie without bouncing, or "on the full", is considered out. Catches (i.e. from snicks) also apply.
Retire at X –  All batsmen must retire (end their turn) once they reach a certain pre-declared number of runs (such as 20, 50 or 100). This prevents anyone "hogging the bat", and helps ensure everyone gets a chance to bat.
Lost Ball – If a lost ball cannot be found, and if there is no replacement ball, the match ends effective immediately. If losing the ball was the result of hitting a six-and-out the batter is declared the loser. Other scenarios may result in the match deemed a No Contest, or the highest-scoring batter declared the winner.

Running to score runs
Hit and Run — (also known as "Tip and Run", "tip and go", "tippy-go", "tippany" or "tippety") Like in baseball, if the batter bat makes contact with the ball, they must run.
No running between wickets – Players may agree that batsmen don't run between the wickets, a rule often applied on hot summer days or if players are injured, aged, or otherwise infirmed. As a result, batters typically cannot be run out, but they can still be stumped if found out of their crease. In order to score, they must hit 4's (or 6's if allowed).
Rules for fielders:
Dogs – Dogs are considered fielders, and they effectively switch teams with each innings to constantly remain on the fielding team. If a dog catches the ball (the one-bounce rule is also often allowed), or if the dog (or any other pet) is hit by the ball on-the-full, the batter is declared out. It is the responsibility of the fielding team to chase dogs when required, but ultimately it is the responsibility of the bowler to clean the ball of any slobber.

Extra Player – If both teams have an even number of players and there is one extra person, he is considered a joker player ("Kacha limbu.") The joker is part of both teams. The joker is required to field in both innings, but he is not allowed to bowl. However, he is allowed to bat on both side of the team. He is allowed to bat in any order. Depending on the agreement of both captains, he can be restricted to bat last.
Toss – The coin toss plays an important role in backyard cricket like it does in international play. The captain that wins the toss may choose to bat first, or choose the first player. The cricket bat itself is often used in place of a coin, where the call is in respect to whether the bat tossed in the air lands with its flat side upwards or downwards.

If the game is not played individually, the person who owns the bat and ball may choose to bat first.

Beach cricket

Play on an actual beach can be achieved either by using the flat strip of hard-packed sand along the surf line as the pitch, or by only "bowling" gentle full tosses to avoid the problem of the ball not bouncing off loose sand.
If there are no true stumps available a bin, deckchair, boogie board or cool box may be used. Tennis balls are often used in place of cricket balls as they float in the water and don't get bogged in the sand as easily.

In beach cricket the creases and the boundary are normally drawn in the sand in a line which extends well past the side of the agreed pitch to prevent them becoming obliterated in the first over. The batsmen will frequently redraw the line.  Sometimes, play is shifted along the beach to a new pitch as the packed sand of the original pitch is turned up, thus reducing the standard of or even completely disabling bowling. The tide plays a big part in the standard of the pitch in beach cricket.  During low tide, the pitch tends to be on the semi-wet sand, and is deemed superior than cricket played in high tide (when the pitch is on dryer, looser sand).  In particularly long matches, the play will shift up and down the beach depending on the tide.

South American variants

In Brazil, the game of bete-ombro, also known as taco or bets, is played with two teams of two players. It is generally played using plastic bottles as wickets, and the fielding team's players alternate between wicket-keeping and bowling, based on which player has the ball. The batters must cross their bats together while running, and a batter can be stumped or run out if they don't ground their bat within their "crease" (which is a circle on the ground in front of the stumps).

In the Dominican Republican, the game of "la plaquita" is similar.

In Suriname, "bat-en-bal" is likely derived from cricket. Only one end of the pitch has a set of stumps.

See also
 French cricket
 Catch
 Flying disc sports
 Lawn game
 Stickball
 Wiffleball

Explanatory notes

References

External links

Cricket on board HMS Gibraltar circa 1900

Further reading

 Backyard cricket serious business for some with pitches popping up across Melbourne each summer | Herald Sun

 Get active: Backyard cricket | Herald Sun

 Chris Lynn believes backyard cricket helped him earn call-up to Australia's T20 side | The Courier-Mail
 Roger Caillois' Man, Play and Games (University of Illinois Press, 2001, .)

Team sports
Ball games
Short form cricket
cricket
Sports originating in Australia

Backyard cricket


Hastings Writers' Group is an organisation for published and aspiring writers based in Hastings, East Sussex.  It was established in 1947, and is one of the longest-running writers' groups in the United Kingdom. Catherine Cookson was a founder member and was patron for many years.  A more recent patron was David Gemmell, a best-selling author of heroic fantasy.

The group runs a national short story competition, the Legend Writing Award, and also produces an annual anthology, Strandline. Strandline won two national awards: Volume 3 won the David St John Thomas Charitable Trust anthology award and Volume 4 won the National Association of Writers' Groups' Denise Robertson Trophy for the best group anthology.

Meetings are held fortnightly on Monday evenings and the programme includes manuscript evenings with constructive criticism, guest speakers, workshops, and competitions with judges from the field of professional writing.

External links
Hastings Writers' Group official site
Legend Writing Award
NAWG showcase page

Hastings
British writers' organisations
1947 establishments in England

Hastings Writers' Group


The Sydney Harbour Transport Board was a statutory of the Government of New South Wales responsible for the provision of ferry services on Sydney Harbour from July 1951 until November 1974.

History
With its Sydney Harbour services having become unprofitable, in March 1951 Sydney Ferries Limited advised the Government of New South Wales of its intention to cease operating ferry services on Sydney Harbour.

After investigating the possibility of using statutory powers to compulsorily acquire the business without paying compensation, the government agreed to purchase the business with 15 ferries from 1 July 1951. Pursuant to the , the Sydney Harbour Transport Board (SHTB) was established. As the board did not have any experience of ferry management, day-to-day running was contracted out to the Port Jackson & Manly Steamship Company.

In 1956, the Kooleen was purchased. This single deck ferry which the SHTB intended would be the first of many had no outside seating and was much derided. As a result, it was decided to retain the existing fleet, albeit with the remaining steam powered examples converted to diesel power. Between 1968 and 1970, three Lady class ferries were purchased.

Pursuant to the , the functions of the SHTB were transferred to the Public Transport Commission on 1 December 1974.

See also
 Timeline of Sydney Harbour ferries

References

Ferry companies of New South Wales
Ferry transport in Sydney
Defunct government entities of New South Wales
1951 establishments in Australia
1974 disestablishments in Australia
Sydney Harbour
Defunct transport organisations based in Australia

Sydney Harbour Transport Board


Forced migration (also called displacements) is when people are made to leave their home or homeland. It is usually caused by violence, persecution, danger, or because an authority (such as a government) has told people to move. People are removed either by force or because of a threat or command. A person who has become forced to migrate is called a "forced migrant" or "displaced person". They may be called a refugee, but that term has a specific legal definition.

Migration of people is constantly happening, but in a stable society it usually happens because a person chooses to do it. Forced migration occurs when people's lives, well-being or freedom is endangered. They may have little or no choice but to move. In some cases, such as human trafficking and slavery, people are physically removed from their homes.

Occasionally a government forces people and communities out of their homes or homelands for the purposes of economic development or military. It has been most often been associated with the building of dams and military bases.

Migration can also be forced by natural disasters, when people are forced to evacuate an area. This is usually temporary, and people can return to their land once it is safe. If not, such forced migrantion violates Fourth Geneva Convention.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says Afghanistan produces the most number of refugees each year. It has held that position for 32 years. Almost half of refugees are children under the age of 18. Many of these are separated from their parents.

Related pages
 Asylum seeker
 Deportation

References

Other websites
 What is Forced Migration? , an introductory guide for those who are new to the subject.

Human rights abuses
Population

Forced migration