1.
Talk Talk
–
Talk Talk were an English new wave band, active from 1981 until their breakup in 1992. Their early hit singles include Today, Talk Talk, Its My Life, although the band only experienced moderate success in their native country, they established some international success. Talk Talk moved away from synthpop towards more experimental music in the mid-1980s, friction with the bands label, EMI, resulted in legal action and countersuing. The band switched to Polydor for their album, 1991s Laughing Stock. Singer Mark Hollis released one album in 1998 before retiring from the music industry. Founding bass player and drummer Paul Webb and Lee Harris played in bands together, de facto fourth member Tim Friese-Greene continued in the business as a musician. Talk Talk began as a quartet consisting of Mark Hollis formerly from The Reaction, Lee Harris, Paul Webb, in their early years they were often compared with Duran Duran. In addition to a name consisting of a repeated word. The band also supported Duran Duran on tour in late 1981, the band released their first single, Mirror Man, on EMI in February 1982. The single was not a success, but was quickly followed by their self-titled single in April 1982 which reached No.52 in the UK. The bands first album, titled The Partys Over, was released in July 1982, the band had their first UK Top 40 hits with the singles Today and a re-release of Talk Talk. These singles also were hits in countries including Ireland, South Africa, Australia. The re-release of the Talk Talk single reached the U. S, the album was produced by Colin Thurston, who was Duran Durans in-house EMI producer at the time, but picked by Hollis because of his involvement with David Bowies Heroes. It was a success in the UK reaching No.21. It was a Top 10 hit in New Zealand and they were introduced to a much wider live audience in October 1982 when they supported Genesis at their reunion concert with original lead singer Peter Gabriel at Milton Keynes Bowl, England. Brenner left after the 1983 non-LP hit single My Foolish Friend, at this point, Talk Talk was now a trio, as Brenner was never officially replaced. Although a major contributor to the bands output, Friese-Greene did not regularly play with the touring band. The accompanying single Such a Shame became a Top 10 hit in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Switzerland during this period
Talk Talk
–
(L-R) Hollis, Webb, Harris. 1988
2.
Public limited company
–
A public limited company is a type of public company under the United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a liability company whose shares may be freely sold and traded to the public, with a minimum share capital of £50,000. Similar companies in the United States are called publicly traded companies, public limited companies will also have a separate legal identity. A PLC can be either an unlisted or listed company on the stock exchanges, in the United Kingdom, a public limited company usually must include the words public limited company or the abbreviation PLC or plc at the end and as part of the legal company name. Welsh companies may choose to end their names with ccc. However, some public limited companies incorporated under special legislation are exempted from bearing any of the identifying suffixes. The term public limited company and the PLC/plc suffix were introduced in 1981, prior to this, all limited companies bore the suffix Limited, which is still used by private limited companies. When a new company incorporates in England and Wales or in Scotland, it must register with Companies House, Formation of a public limited company requires a minimum of one director and one secretary. In England and Wales and in Scotland, the male/female is under 16 years old, some people who are not British citizens are restricted as to what work they may do while in the UK, which may exclude them from being a director. The members must agree to some, or all, of the shares when the company is registered. The memorandum of association must show the names of the people who have agreed to take shares and these people are called the subscribers. There is a share capital for public limited companies, Before it can start business. A quarter of them, £12,500, must be paid up, each allotted share must be paid up to at least one quarter of its nominal value together with the whole of any premium. A company can increase its share capital by passing an ordinary resolution. A copy of the resolution – and notice of the increase on Form 123 – must reach Companies House within 15 days of being passed, no fee is payable to Companies House. A company can decrease its authorised share capital by passing a resolution to cancel shares which have not been taken or agreed to be taken by any person. Notice of the cancellation, on Form 122, must reach Companies House within one month, no fee is payable to Companies House. A company may have as different types of shares as it wishes
Public limited company
3.
Telecommunication
–
Telecommunication is the transmission of signs, signals, messages, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems. Telecommunication occurs when the exchange of information between communication participants includes the use of technology and it is transmitted either electrically over physical media, such as cables, or via electromagnetic radiation. Such transmission paths are divided into communication channels which afford the advantages of multiplexing. The term is used in its plural form, telecommunications. Early means of communicating over a distance included visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, other examples of pre-modern long-distance communication included audio messages such as coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, and loud whistles. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth, the word telecommunication is a compound of the Greek prefix tele, meaning distant, far off, or afar, and the Latin communicare, meaning to share. Its modern use is adapted from the French, because its use was recorded in 1904 by the French engineer. Communication was first used as an English word in the late 14th century, in the Middle Ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could pass a single bit of information. One notable instance of their use was during the Spanish Armada, in 1792, Claude Chappe, a French engineer, built the first fixed visual telegraphy system between Lille and Paris. However semaphore suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers at intervals of ten to thirty kilometres, as a result of competition from the electrical telegraph, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880. Homing pigeons have occasionally used throughout history by different cultures. Pigeon post is thought to have Persians roots and was used by the Romans to aid their military, frontinus said that Julius Caesar used pigeons as messengers in his conquest of Gaul. The Greeks also conveyed the names of the victors at the Olympic Games to various cities using homing pigeons, in the early 19th century, the Dutch government used the system in Java and Sumatra. And in 1849, Paul Julius Reuter started a service to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service that operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke invented the telegraph in 1837. Also, the first commercial electrical telegraph is purported to have constructed by Wheatstone and Cooke. Both inventors viewed their device as an improvement to the electromagnetic telegraph not as a new device, samuel Morse independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on 2 September 1837
Telecommunication
–
A satellite communication antenna at the biggest facility for satellite communication in Raisting, Bavaria, Germany
Telecommunication
–
Visualization from the
Opte Project of the various routes through a portion of the Internet.
Telecommunication
–
A replica of one of
Chappe's semaphore towers.
Telecommunication
–
Optical fiber provides cheaper bandwidth for long distance communication.
4.
Leeds
–
Leeds /liːdz/ is a city in West Yorkshire, England. Historically in Yorkshires West Riding, the history of Leeds can be traced to the 5th century when the name referred to an area of the Kingdom of Elmet. The name has applied to many administrative entities over the centuries. It changed from being the appellation of a small borough in the 13th century, through several incarnations. In the 17th and 18th centuries Leeds became a centre for the production. During the Industrial Revolution, Leeds developed into a mill town, wool was the dominant industry but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing. From being a market town in the valley of the River Aire in the 16th century Leeds expanded and absorbed the surrounding villages to become a populous urban centre by the mid-20th century. The city has the third largest jobs total by local authority area with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015. Leeds is also ranked as a world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Leeds is served by four universities, and has the fourth largest student population in the country and has the fourth largest urban economy. After London, Leeds is the largest legal and financial centre in the UK, with over 30 national and international banks located in the city. Leeds is also the UKs third largest manufacturing centre with around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, the largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology. Outside of London, Leeds has the third busiest railway station, Public transport, rail and road communications networks in the region are focused on Leeds and there are a number of twinning arrangements with towns and cities in other countries. The name Leeds derives from the old Brythonic word Ladenses meaning people of the fast-flowing river and this name originally referred to the forested area covering most of the Brythonic kingdom of Elmet, which existed during the 5th century into the early 7th century. An inhabitant of Leeds is locally known as a Loiner, a word of uncertain origin, the term Leodensian is also used, from the citys Latin name. Leeds developed as a town in the Middle Ages as part of the local agricultural economy. Before the Industrial Revolution it became a centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth. Leeds handled one sixth of Englands export trade in 1770, growth, initially in textiles, was accelerated by the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699 and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816
Leeds
–
Clockwise from top:
Leeds Town Hall,
Bridgewater Place,
City Square and
Roundhay Park.
Leeds
Leeds
Leeds
5.
England
–
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
England
–
Stonehenge, a
Neolithic monument
England
–
Flag
England
–
Boudica led an uprising against the
Roman Empire
England
–
Replica of a 7th-century ceremonial
helmet from the
Kingdom of East Anglia, found at
Sutton Hoo
6.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
United Kingdom
–
Stonehenge, in
Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.
United Kingdom
–
Flag
United Kingdom
–
The
Bayeux Tapestry depicts the
Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.
United Kingdom
–
The
Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.
7.
Charles Dunstone
–
Dunstone was born in 1964, in the town of Saffron Walden in Essex. Dunstone was educated at Uppingham School, an independent school for boys, in the town of Uppingham in Rutland. Dunstones father was an executive at BP, Charles Dunstone first began selling mobile phones out of his flat on Marylebone Road in 1989. He was 25 years old and had £6,000 of savings to start his business and it was whilst working at NEC that he first spotted the potential of mobile phones and the future of mobile communications. At that time, handsets were large, cumbersome and mainly purchased by big business, corporate clients were well catered for but small businesses, the self-employed and general public had nowhere to go. Dunstone realised that mobile phones would eventually become ubiquitous and named his company The Carphone Warehouse to serve this larger market. In July 2000 the company floated on the London Stock Exchange and based on an Issue price of 200p, in May 2008, Best Buy, an American multinational consumer electronics corporation, and CPW agreed to create a new company, Best Buy Europe. Best Buy acquired 50% of CPWs European and US retail interests for a consideration of £1.1 billion or $2.1 billion. The assets of the newly formed company comprise CPWs existing retail business, operating more than 2,400 stores in nine European countries under CPW. These include the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, CPW is today the worlds largest independent mobile communications retailer. In 2005 Dunstones salary and bonus came to £689,000, in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 he was listed in 64th place, with an estimated fortune of £830 million. Dunstone employed the controversial ex-convict Ernest Saunders as a consultant for Carphone Warehouse prior to its flotation. HBOS is the company for Halifax plc and the Governor. In 2005 Dunstones fee was £56,000, non-executive director of the Daily Mail and General Trust. DMGT is one of the largest media companies in the UK and has interests around the world in national and regional newspapers, television, radio, exhibitions, in 2005 Dunstones fee was £34,000. Non-executive director of Independent Media Distribution PLC between January 2002 - May 2011 IMD is a global distributor of TV & radio advertising and for the television. Clients include ITV, MTV, LOreal and BSkyB, in 2005 Dunstones fee was £20,000. Council Member of The Princes Trust and former Chairman of its trading subsidiary, the Princes Trust is a Registered Charity No 1079675
Charles Dunstone
–
Dunstone pictured in 2005.
8.
Landline
–
A landline telephone refers to a phone that uses a metal wire or fibre optic telephone line for transmission as distinguished from a mobile cellular line, which uses radio waves for transmission. In 2003, the CIA reported approximately 1.263 billion main telephone lines worldwide, china had more than any other country at 350 million and the United States was second with 268 million. The United Kingdom has 23.7 million residential fixed homephones, the 2013 statistics show that the total number of fixed-telephone subscribers in the world was about 1.16 billion. The number of landline subscribers continuously decreases due to upgrades in digital technology, a fixed phone line can be hard-wired or cordless and typically refers to the operation of wireless devices or systems in fixed locations such as homes. Fixed wireless devices usually derive their power from the utility mains electricity, unlike mobile wireless or portable wireless. Although mobile and portable systems can be used in fixed locations, efficiency, mobile or portable, battery-powered wireless systems can be used as emergency backups for fixed systems in case of a power blackout or natural disaster. So-called leased lines are invariably of the type, the implications of a land line in this context are security and survivability. For example, a military headquarters might be linked to units by landline to ensure that communication remains possible even if the conventional telephone network is damaged or destroyed. Another example of this is in airports, all air traffic control towers have dedicated lines connected to the police, fire department, hospitals, army, etc. Deployed as a precaution in case of emergency, these can be used at any time, in many countries the landline has not been readily available to most people. In some countries in Africa, the rise in cell phones has outpaced any rise in landline telephones, between 1998 and 2008, Africa added only 2.4 million landlines. However, during this time the number of mobile phone lines that have been subscribed to has skyrocketed. Between 2000 and 2008, cell phone use has risen from less than 2 in 100 people to 33 out of 100. In developing countries it is difficult to install landline copper that is accessible to everyone than it is to install mobile wireless towers that people can connect to from anywhere. In the early 21st century, the telephone has declined due to the advancement of mobile network technology. Some see this happening as soon as the year 2025, in 2004, only about 45% of people in the United States between the ages of 12 and 17 owned cell phones. At that time, they had to rely on landline telephones, in just 4 years time, that percentage climbed to about 71%. That same year,2008, about 77% of adults owned a mobile phone, in the year 2013, 91% of adults in the United States owned a mobile phone
Landline
–
A landline telephone
Landline
–
Fixed-line telephone
Landline
–
Landline vs. Mobile phones in Africa
9.
Mobile phone
–
A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the systems of a mobile phone operator. Most modern mobile telephone services use a network architecture, and, therefore. Mobile phones which offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available mobile phone. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to seven billion, penetrating 100% of the global population. In first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone manufacturers were Samsung, Apple, a handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a pocket-size folding telephone with a thin carbon microphone. Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships, the race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries. These 0G systems were not cellular, supported few simultaneous calls, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. The first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and this was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone system in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Several other countries followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first-generation systems could support far more simultaneous calls but still used analog cellular technology, in 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. In 1991, the digital cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard. This sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators, ten years later, in 2001, the third generation was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard. This was followed by 3. 5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on the high-speed packet access family, allowing UMTS networks to have data transfer speeds. By 2009, it had become clear that, at point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized fourth-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to ten-fold over existing 3G technologies
Mobile phone
–
Evolution of mobile phones, through early
smartphone
Mobile phone
–
Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first publicized handheld mobile phone call on a prototype DynaTAC model on April 4, 1973. This is a reenactment in 2007.
Mobile phone
–
The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. First commercially available, hand-held cellular mobile phone, 1984
Mobile phone
–
Typical mobile phone
SIM card
10.
Digital television
–
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digitally processed and multiplexed signal, in contrast to the totally analog and channel separated signals used by analog television. Digital TV can support more than one program in the channel bandwidth. It is a service that represents the first significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s. Several regions of the world are in different stages of adaptation and are implementing different broadcasting standards and this standard has been adopted in Europe, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Advanced Television System Committee uses eight-level vestigial sideband for terrestrial broadcasting and this standard has been adopted by six countries, United States, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Dominican Republic and Honduras. Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting is a designed to provide good reception to fixed receivers. It utilizes OFDM and two-dimensional interleaving and it supports hierarchical transmission of up to three layers and uses MPEG-2 video and Advanced Audio Coding. This standard has adopted in Japan and the Philippines. ISDB-T International is an adaptation of this standard using H. 264/MPEG-4 AVC that been adopted in most of South America and is also being embraced by Portuguese-speaking African countries. Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting adopts time-domain synchronous OFDM technology with a signal frame to serve as the guard interval of the OFDM block. The DTMB standard has adopted in the Peoples Republic of China, including Hong Kong. Digital TVs roots have been tied very closely to the availability of inexpensive and it wasnt until the 1990s that digital TV became a real possibility. S. Until June 1990, the Japanese MUSE standard—based on an analog system—was the front-runner among the more than 23 different technical concepts under consideration, then, an American company, General Instrument, demonstrated the feasibility of a digital television signal. This breakthrough was of significance that the FCC was persuaded to delay its decision on an ATV standard until a digitally based standard could be developed. In March 1990, when it became clear that a standard was feasible. The new ATV standard also allowed the new DTV signal to be based on new design principles. Although incompatible with the existing NTSC standard, the new DTV standard would be able to incorporate many improvements, the final standard adopted by the FCC did not require a single standard for scanning formats, aspect ratios, or lines of resolution. This outcome resulted from a dispute between the electronics industry and the computer industry over which of the two scanning processes—interlaced or progressive—is superior
Digital television
–
Comparison of image quality between
ISDB-T (top) and
NTSC (bottom)
11.
Pound sterling
–
It is subdivided into 100 pence. A number of nations that do not use sterling also have called the pound. At various times, the sterling was commodity money or bank notes backed by silver or gold. The pound sterling is the worlds oldest currency still in use, the British Crown dependencies of Guernsey and Jersey produce their own local issues of sterling, the Guernsey pound and the Jersey pound. The pound sterling is also used in the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, the Bank of England is the central bank for the pound sterling, issuing its own coins and banknotes, and regulating issuance of banknotes by private banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Sterling is the fourth most-traded currency in the exchange market, after the United States dollar, the euro. Together with those three currencies it forms the basket of currencies which calculate the value of IMF special drawing rights, Sterling is also the third most-held reserve currency in global reserves. The full, official name, pound sterling, is used mainly in formal contexts, otherwise the term pound is normally used. The abbreviations ster. or stg. are sometimes used, the term British pound is commonly used in less formal contexts, although it is not an official name of the currency. The pound sterling is also referred to as cable amongst forex traders, the origins of this term are attributed to the fact that in the 1800s, the dollar/pound sterling exchange rate was transmitted via transatlantic cable. Forex brokers are sometimes referred to as cable dealers, as another established source notes, the compound expression was then derived, silver coins known as sterlings were issued in the Saxon kingdoms,240 of them being minted from a pound of silver. Hence, large payments came to be reckoned in pounds of sterlings, in 1260, Henry III granted them a charter of protection. And because the Leagues money was not frequently debased like that of England, English traders stipulated to be paid in pounds of the Easterlings, and land for their Kontor, the Steelyard of London, which by the 1340s was also called Easterlings Hall, or Esterlingeshalle. For further discussion of the etymology of sterling, see sterling silver, the currency sign for the pound sign is £, which is usually written with a single cross-bar, though a version with a double cross-bar is also sometimes seen. The ISO4217 currency code is GBP, occasionally, the abbreviation UKP is used but this is non-standard because the ISO3166 country code for the United Kingdom is GB. The Crown dependencies use their own codes, GGP, JEP, stocks are often traded in pence, so traders may refer to pence sterling, GBX, when listing stock prices. A common slang term for the pound sterling or pound is quid, since decimalisation in 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence. The symbol for the penny is p, hence an amount such as 50p properly pronounced fifty pence is more colloquially, quite often, pronounced fifty pee /fɪfti, pi and this also helped to distinguish between new and old pence amounts during the changeover to the decimal system
Pound sterling
–
The Hatter 's hat shows an example of the old pre-decimal system: the hat costs half a guinea (10 shillings and 6 pence)
Pound sterling
–
All frequently used coins. The coins shown are those after the extensive
2008 redesign.
Pound sterling
–
A pound = 20
shillings = 240
silver pennies (formerly)
Pound sterling
–
£1 coin (Welsh design, 2000)
12.
Earnings before interest and taxes
–
In accounting and finance, earnings before interest and taxes, is a measure of a firms profit that includes all expenses except interest and income tax expenses. It is the difference between operating revenues and operating expenses, when a firm does not have non-operating income, then operating income is sometimes used as a synonym for EBIT and operating profit. To calculate EBIT, expenses are subtracted from revenues, net income is later obtained by subtracting interest and taxes from the result
Earnings before interest and taxes
–
Accounting
13.
Net income
–
In business, net income is an entitys income minus cost of goods sold, expenses and taxes for an accounting period. In the context of the presentation of financial statements, the IFRS Foundation defines net income as synonymous with profit, net income is a distinct accounting concept from profit but the same as net profit. Net income can also be calculated by adding a companys operating income to non-operating income, net income can be distributed among holders of common stock as a dividend or held by the firm as an addition to retained earnings. As profit and earnings are used synonymously for income, net earnings, often, the term income is substituted for net income, yet this is not preferred due to the possible ambiguity. Net income is called the bottom line because it is typically found on the last line of a companys income statement. The items deducted will typically include tax expense, financing expense, likewise, preferred stock dividends will be subtracted too, though they are not an expense. For a merchandising company, subtracted costs may be the cost of goods sold, sales discounts, for a product company advertising, manufacturing, and design and development costs are included
Net income
–
Accounting
14.
TalkTalk Business
–
TalkTalk Business is a business broadband, telephone, mobile phone and IT support provider owned by TalkTalk Group. The division supports approx 180,000 UK businesses, and 350 resellers, TalkTalk Business was founded in 1995 as Opal Telecoms. TalkTalk Business changed its name from Opal Telecom on 1 February 2011, however it has its origins in many business divisions of telecommunications companies that have been taken over including Pipex, Opal Telecom, Freedom2surf, Nildram and Tiscali. TalkTalk Group was founded in 2003 as a subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse and was de-merged as a company in March 2010. Other products and services promoted by TalkTalk Business include business phone lines, Ethernet in the First Mile, cloud hosting, IPVPN, Unified Communications, TalkTalk Business’ Hosted Data Centre in Corsham is based on a modular design and fully scalable campus infrastructure. Access is protected by multi-layered security with manned 24/7 monitoring, multiple physical security perimeters, direct, enterprise Products and services for enterprise level businesses include multi-site WAN solutions, centralised IT infrastructure and hosted solutions and applications. TalkTalk Business provides UK based support including account management, project management, the partner channel TalkTalk Business’ solutions for the partner channel are built over its Next Generation Network. The company provides partners migrating to the network with a roadmap to help them move away from “legacy” technology. TalkTalk Business works with partners with volume requirements across the spectrum, whether their customers are SOHO or SME, TalkTalk Business offer partners both managed and wholesale options. One major partner currently working with TalkTalk Business is Mitel
TalkTalk Business
–
TalkTalk Business (TalkTalk Communications Ltd)
15.
TalkTalk Technology
–
TalkTalk Telecom Group plc is a company which provides pay television, telecommunications, Internet access, and mobile network services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2003 as a subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse and was demerged as a company in March 2010. Like some other UK broadband providers, TalkTalk has invested in its own infrastructure, known as local-loop-unbundling. Since August 2012, TalkTalk has become the UKs second quadruple play service after Virgin Media, offering TV, broadband, phone, TalkTalk is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index. The company has been rated multiple times among the worst landline, the Carphone Warehouses acquisition of Opal Telecom in November 2002 gave it its own switching network providing access to BT Wholesales landline network. An initial trial was conducted in the Manchester region, and three months later, TalkTalk launched with a guarantee that calls would be cheaper than with their chief competitor BT. TalkTalk Broadband was launched in November 2004. 99/month, conditions included signing up for a minimum 18-month contract and a £29.99 initial connection fee. That same year, the Advertising Standards Authority challenged the legitimacy of TalkTalks claim that this service was truly free, TalkTalk allowed customers to escape the binding 18-month contract for broadband if it had failed to keep its service commitments in their case. To the Mail on Sunday, Dunstone stated In about 20% of customers there is kind of problem with the phone exchange. A customer satisfaction poll by uSwitch in November 2006 placed TalkTalk, by 2005, TalkTalk had 2.5 million customers following the acquisitions of the UK subsidiaries of Tele2 for £11.5 million and One. Tel for £169.6 million. Carphone Warehouse purchased the UK ISP business of AOL in October 2006 for £370m and this had risen to 2.7 million customers by January 2009. In November 2008, Charles Dunstone was reported to be looking to demerge TalkTalk from the main Carphone Warehouse business, the split was confirmed in April 2009, with plans for TalkTalk to become a separate listed company. Carphone Warehouse agreed to purchase the UK subsidiary of Tiscali in May 2009 for £236 million, the purchase was approved by the European Union Competition Commission in June 2009, and the sale was completed on 6 July 2009. Carphone Warehouse confirmed the business would merge into TalkTalk ahead of the planned demerger, the Carphone Warehouses full-year earnings statement in November 2009 revealed the TalkTalk customer base had risen to 4.1 million following the purchase of Tiscali UK earlier in the year. Tiscali UK closed to new business on 7 January 2010, in March 2010, TalkTalk and Carphone Warehouse demerged becoming publicly listed companies. Dido Harding became CEO of TalkTalk and Roger Taylor CEO of New Carphone Warehouse, in January 2010, TalkTalk launched a protest against the introduction of the Digital Economy Act 2010, and released a video protesting against the law called Home taping is killing music. Upon the passing of the bill TalkTalk issued a statement on the company blog confirming it would resist attempts to use the bill against their customers. In a study carried out by UK telecoms regulator Ofcom in 2010, TalkTalk was found to have speeds of 7. 7-9.3 Mbit/sec
TalkTalk Technology
–
TalkTalk Technology
16.
Internet service provider
–
An Internet service provider is an organization that provides services for accessing and using the Internet. Internet service providers may be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, Internet services typically provided by ISPs include Internet access, Internet transit, domain name registration, web hosting, Usenet service, and colocation. The Internet was developed as a network between government research laboratories and participating departments of universities, by the late 1980s, a process was set in place towards public, commercial use of the Internet. The remaining restrictions were removed by 1995,4 years after the introduction of the World Wide Web, in 1989, the first ISPs were established in Australia and the United States. In Brookline, Massachusetts, The World became the first commercial ISP in the US and its first customer was served in November 1989. On 23 April 2014, the U. S, a possible solution to net neutrality concerns may be municipal broadband, according to Professor Susan Crawford, a legal and technology expert at Harvard Law School. On 10 November 2014, President Barack Obama recommended that the FCC reclassify broadband Internet service as a service in order to preserve net neutrality. On 31 January 2015, AP News reported that the FCC will present the notion of applying Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 to the internet in a vote expected on 26 February 2015. Adoption of this notion would reclassify internet service from one of information to one of the telecommunications and, according to Tom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC, the FCC is expected to enforce net neutrality in its vote, according to the New York Times. On 26 February 2015, the FCC ruled in favor of net neutrality by adopting Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 and Section 706 in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to the Internet. The FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, commented, This is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to free speech. They both stand for the same concept, on 12 March 2015, the FCC released the specific details of the net neutrality rules. On 13 April 2015, the FCC published the rule on its new Net Neutrality regulations. ISPs provide Internet access, employing a range of technologies to connect users to their network, available technologies have ranged from computer modems with acoustic couplers to telephone lines, to television cable, wireless Ethernet, and fiber optics. For users and small businesses, traditional options include copper wires to provide dial-up, DSL, typically asymmetric digital subscriber line, using fiber-optics to end users is called Fiber To The Home or similar names. Wireless access is another option, including cellular and satellite Internet access, a mailbox provider is an organization that provides services for hosting electronic mail domains with access to storage for mail boxes. It provides email servers to send, receive, accept, many mailbox providers are also access providers, while others are not. Internet hosting services provide email, web-hosting, or online storage services, other services include virtual server, cloud services, or physical server operation
Internet service provider
–
Local ISP in Manhattan installing fiber for provisioning Internet access
17.
Cellular network
–
A cellular network or mobile network is a communication network where the last link is wireless. The network is distributed over land areas called cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver and this base station provides the cell with the network coverage which can be used for transmission of voice, data and others. A cell might use a different set of frequencies from neighboring cells, to avoid interference, when joined together these cells provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area. This allows mobile phones and mobile computing devices to be connected to the switched telephone network. Private cellular networks can be used for research or for large organizations and fleets, each of these cells is assigned with multiple frequencies which have corresponding radio base stations. The group of frequencies can be reused in other cells, provided that the frequencies are not reused in adjacent neighboring cells as that would cause co-channel interference. If there is a single transmitter, only one transmission can be used on any given frequency. Unfortunately, there is some level of interference from the signal from the other cells which use the same frequency. This means that, in a standard FDMA system, there must be at least a one cell gap between cells which reuse the same frequency, in the simple case of the taxi company, each radio had a manually operated channel selector knob to tune to different frequencies. As the drivers moved around, they would change from channel to channel, the drivers knew which frequency covered approximately what area. When they did not receive a signal from the transmitter, they would try other channels until they found one that worked, the taxi drivers would only speak one at a time, when invited by the base station operator. With TDMA, the transmitting and receiving time slots used by different users in each cell are different from each other, with FDMA, the transmitting and receiving frequencies used by different users in each cell are different from each other. In a simple system, the taxi driver manually tuned to a frequency of a chosen cell to obtain a strong signal. The principle of CDMA is more complex, but achieves the same result, time division multiple access is used in combination with either FDMA or CDMA in a number of systems to give multiple channels within the coverage area of a single cell. The key characteristic of a network is the ability to re-use frequencies to increase both coverage and capacity. The elements that determine frequency reuse are the distance and the reuse factor. The reuse distance, D is calculated as D = R3 N, cells may vary in radius from 1 to 30 kilometres. The boundaries of the cells can also overlap between adjacent cells and large cells can be divided into smaller cells, the frequency reuse factor is the rate at which the same frequency can be used in the network
Cellular network
–
Top of a cellular radio tower
18.
Carphone Warehouse
–
Carphone Warehouse is a British mobile phone retailer, with over 2,400 stores across Europe. It trades as Carphone Warehouse in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the company has been a subsidiary of Dixons Carphone since 7 August 2014, which was formed by the merger of its former parent Carphone Warehouse Group with Dixons Retail. Carphone Warehouse Group was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE250 Index, the company was co-founded in 1989, when most portable phones were too bulky to carry and called car phones, by current Chairman Sir Charles Dunstone and Julian Brownlie. Brownlie and Dunstone put £6,000 into the company from their savings, in 1990 Dunstone then called his old school friend and Chartered Accountant David Ross, who agreed to become Finance Director. Based originally in Dunstones rented flat on the Marylebone Road, London, David Ross led the footprint development of the company, under The Phone House brand, across Europe and the United States. When the IPO of Carphone Warehouse took place in 2000 Charles Dunstone owned half, David Ross a third, Johnson sold the majority of his stake in 2001 and retired with his young family to his holiday home in Portugal. Carphone Warehouse bought Opal Telecom in 2002, and in 2003 launched the TalkTalk brand, Ross became deputy chairman in July 2005, and by 2008 was a non-executive director. David Ross resigned from the board in December 2008 over an issue with shares, the purchase was completed on 9 December 2006. The acquired business was operated under the name AOL Broadband, in May 2008 Best Buy agreed to buy a 50% share of The Carphone Warehouse retail business for £1.1 billion to launch the Best Buy Europe joint venture. Best Buy branded superstores opened in the UK on 30 April 2010 with a store in Thurrock, in total,11 stores were opened. The company closed all of its United Kingdom stores on 14 January 2012, in April 2013, Carphone Warehouse agreed to buy out Best Buy for £500 million. The division was renamed CPW Europe, and included all stores operating under the Carphone Warehouse, at the time, Charles Dunstone confirmed that Tiscali UK would become part of TalkTalk, which would be demerged as a separate company. The group split in March 2010, with TalkTalk and New Carphone Warehouse each becoming publicly listed companies, Charles Dunstone became Chairman of both companies. Dido Harding became CEO of TalkTalk and Roger Taylor CEO of New Carphone Warehouse, on 30 April 2013, Carphone Warehouse agreed to a divorce from Best Buy and to purchase the US companys 50% stake in Best Buy Europe for £500 million. Separation from Virgin Mobile France, announced on 27 June 2014, is pending approval of the French Competition Authority, in May 2014, Carphone Warehouse Group and Dixons Retail announced their merger to create Dixons Carphone. The merger completed on 7 August 2014, in May 2015, Carphone Warehouse launched a new mobile network, iD, a mobile virtual network operator using Threes network. In October 2006, it was announced that Geek Squad would be launching in the United Kingdom in a 50/50 joint venture between Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy, Geek Squad currently offers 24-hour nationwide over-the-phone technology support. The labour will be split between the two companies, in the same business venture Carphone Warehouse was split into four parts and one quarter sold to Best Buy for a sum nearing 1.1 billion
Carphone Warehouse
–
The Carphone Warehouse Limited
19.
London
–
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
London
–
Palace of Westminster,
Buckingham Palace and
Central London skyline
London
London
London
–
The name London may derive from the
River Thames
20.
Virgin Media
–
Virgin Media PLC is a British company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are in Hook, Hampshire, United Kingdom, the company has been a subsidiary of Liberty Global plc, an international television and telecommunications company headquartered in London, since June 2013. Virgin Media previously had a listing on the NASDAQ Stock Market and was a constituent of the NASDAQ-100 index. It also had a listing on the London Stock Exchange. The company was formed in March 2006 by the merger of NTL and Telewest, in November 2006 the company signed a deal with Sir Richard Branson to license the Virgin brand for the combined business. All of the companys services were rebranded under the Virgin Media name in February 2007. At the same date it had around 3 million mobile telephony customers, Virgin Media competes primarily with Sky, BT Group, EE, O2, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Three. The companys origins lie in both Telewest and NTL, which merged in March 2006, Telewest began in 1984 in Croydon under the name Croydon Cable, and was acquired by United Cable of Denver in 1988. The company expanded during the 1990s and adopted the Telewest name in 1992 following the merger of its then-parent TCI and US West. It expanded into cable television access in 1999 by purchasing the remaining 50% stake in Cable London, one of the first cable TV companies in the UK, from NTL, adding 400,000 homes in north London. In April 2000 Telewest merged with Flextech, and in November extended its network with the acquisition of Eurobell. NTL was established by Barclay Knapp and George Blumenthal in 1993 as International CableTel, initially, Cabletel acquired local cable franchises covering Guildford, Northern Ireland and parts of Central Scotland and South Wales. In 1996 CableTel acquired National Transcommunications Limited, the privatised UK Independent Broadcasting Authority transmission network, in 1998 CableTel adopted NTL as its new name. NTL purchased the ISP Virgin. net in 2004, having originally operated it as a joint venture with Virgin Group since it launched in November 1996. It sold ADSL broadband services through BT landlines to those living outside areas served by NTLs cable network and also offered subscription-based, prior to acquiring Virgin. net, NTL offered a similar package called NTL Freedom. Telewest and NTL began discussions regarding a merger in late 2003, thanks to their geographically distinct areas, NTL and Telewest had co-operated previously, as in redirecting potential customers living outside their respective areas. On 3 October 2005, NTL announced a US$16 billion purchase of Telewest, to prevent this, Telewest instead acquired NTL. In December 2005 NTL, Telewest and mobile network operator Virgin Mobile UK announced that talks had taken place regarding a merger
Virgin Media
–
Virgin Media's offices in
Nottingham
Virgin Media
–
Virgin Media plc
Virgin Media
–
The former headquarters of Virgin Mobile in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
21.
London Stock Exchange
–
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London in the United Kingdom. As of December 2014, the Exchange had a capitalisation of US$6.06 trillion. The Exchange was founded in 1801 and its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pauls Cathedral in the City of London, the Exchange is part of the London Stock Exchange Group. London Stock Exchange is one of the world’s oldest stock exchanges, London Stock Exchange Group was created in October 2007 when London Stock Exchange merged with Milan Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana. The Royal Exchange had been founded by English financier Thomas Gresham on the model of the Antwerp Bourse and it was opened by Elizabeth I of England in 1571. During the 17th century, stockbrokers were not allowed in the Royal Exchange due to their rude manners and they had to operate from other establishments in the vicinity, notably Jonathans Coffee-House. At that coffee house, a broker named John Casting started listing the prices of a few commodities, exchange rates and certain key provisions such as salt, coal, originally, this was not a daily list and was only published a few days of the week. This list and activity was moved to Garraway’s coffee house. Public auctions during this period were conducted for the duration that a length of tallow candle could burn, as stocks grew, with new companies joining to raise capital, the royal court also raised some monies. These are the earliest evidence of organised trading in securities in London. After Greshams Royal Exchange building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, it was rebuilt and this was a move away from coffee houses and a step towards the modern model of stock exchange. The Royal Exchange not only housed brokers but also merchants and merchandise and this was the birth of a regulated stock market, which had teething problems in the shape of unlicensed brokers. In order to regulate these, Parliament brought out an act in 1697 that levied heavy penalties and it also set a fixed number of brokers, which was later increased as the size of the trade grew. The street in which they were now dealing was known as Exchange Alley, Parliament tried to regulate this and ban the unofficial traders from the Change streets. Traders became weary of bubbles when companies rose quickly and fell, after the Seven Years War, trade at Jonathans coffee house boomed again. In 1773, Jonathan, together with 150 other brokers, formed a club and opened a new and this now had a set entrance fee, through which traders could enter the stock room and trade securities. It was, however, not a location for trading. Fraud was also rife during these times and in order to such dealings
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
–
Paternoster Square; the LSE occupies the building that takes up much of the right side of this picture.
London Stock Exchange
–
London Stock Exchange in 1810
London Stock Exchange
–
The
Stock Exchange Tower pictured from atop the
National Westminster Tower in 1983.
22.
BT Wholesale
–
BT Wholesale is a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BT Group that provides data, voice, hosted communication, managed network and IT services. They are responsible for the leasing of PSTN lines, broadband services. Wholesale Broadband Connect is BT Wholesales up-to-24 Mbit/s ADSL offering in the UK, WBC replaces the now-retired ADSL Max product. WBC is defined in SIN472, ADSL2+ has been available in the UK from Internet Service Providers since 2005, through Local Loop Unbundling. The roll out of WBC by BT will enable the majority of the UK population to access to ADSL2+ services. IPstream is the most highly used wholesale broadband Internet service in the UK, BT Wholesale sells the service to ISPs and IPTV providers, who use it to provide ADSL services to customers over Openreach telephone lines. BT has operational control of the network for such as load balancing. Transit of data to and from the internet, along with services such as email servers, are the responsibility of the ISP. IPStream is widely used by ISPs because it is cheaper to set up and this is balanced by the fact that usage costs for ISPs are higher using IPstream than their own network. Datastream is the system where ISPs in the UK use BT equipment. BT Wholesale pays Openreach for access to the loop and the exchange. The alternative to IPStream is local loop unbundling, in which the ISP obtains these facilities from Openreach directly, similar services are offered in other countries where there is a single dominant telecommunications provider, such as wholesale DSL from Telstra in Australia. IPstream has largely retired by BT in favour of its Wholesale Broadband Connect. BT Wholesale Kitz WBC Page SamKnows 21CN Pages SamKnows 21CN Broadband Pages
BT Wholesale
–
Divisions and subsidiaries
23.
Manchester
–
Manchester is a major city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 514,414 as of 2013. It lies within the United Kingdoms second-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.55 million, Manchester is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority is Manchester City Council and it was historically a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated during the 20th century. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a township but began to expand at an astonishing rate around the turn of the 19th century. Manchesters unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and its fortunes declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation. The city centre was devastated in a bombing in 1996, but it led to extensive investment, in 2014, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Manchester as a beta world city, the highest-ranked British city apart from London. Manchester is the third-most visited city in the UK and it is notable for its architecture, culture, musical exports, media links, scientific and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the worlds first inter-city passenger railway station and in the city scientists first split the atom, the name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunium and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians. These are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name, both meanings are preserved in languages derived from Common Brittonic, mam meaning breast in Irish and mother in Welsh. The suffix -chester is a survival of Old English ceaster and their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Salford and Stretford. Central Manchester has been settled since this time. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield. After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell, much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North. Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor, founded and constructed a church for the parish in 1421. The church is now Manchester Cathedral, the premises of the college house Chethams School of Music. The library, which opened in 1653 and is open to the public today, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom. Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282, around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the regions textile industry
Manchester
–
Clockwise from top: the city seen from a distance,
Beetham Tower,
Manchester Civil Justice Centre,
Midland Hotel,
One Angel Square,
Manchester Town Hall
Manchester
–
A map of Manchester c. 1650
Manchester
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Cotton mills in
Ancoats about 1820
Manchester
–
View from Kersal Moor towards Manchester by Thomas Pether, circa 1820, then still a rural landscape.
24.
BT Group
–
BT Group plc is a holding company which owns British Telecommunications plc, a British multinational telecommunications services company with head offices in London, United Kingdom. It has operations in around 180 countries, BTs origins date back to the founding of the Electric Telegraph Company in 1846 which developed a nationwide communications network. In 1912, the General Post Office, a government department, the Post Office Act of 1969 led to the GPO becoming a public corporation. British Telecommunications, trading as British Telecom, was formed in 1980, British Telecommunications was privatised in 1984, becoming British Telecommunications plc, with some 50 percent of its shares sold to investors. The Government sold its stake in further share sales in 1991 and 1993. BT has a listing on the London Stock Exchange, a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange. BT controls a number of large subsidiaries, BT announced in February 2015 that it had agreed to acquire EE for £12.5 billion, and received final regulatory approval from the Competition and Markets Authority on 15 January 2016. The transaction was completed on 29 January 2016, BTs origins date back to the establishment of the first telecommunications companies in Britain. Among them was the first commercial service, the Electric Telegraph Company. As these companies amalgamated and were taken over or collapsed, the companies were transferred to state control under the Post Office in 1912. These companies were merged and rebranded as British Telecom, in January 1878 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his recently developed telephone to Queen Victoria at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. John Hudson, with his premises in nearby Shudehill. As the number of installed telephones across the country grew it became sensible to consider constructing telephone exchanges to allow all the telephones in each city to be connected together, the first exchange was opened in London in August 1879, closely followed by the Lancashire Telephonic Exchange in Manchester. From 1878, the service in Britain was provided by private sector companies such as the National Telephone Company. In 1896, the National Telephone Company was taken over by the General Post Office, in 1912 it became the primary supplier of telecommunications services, after the Post Office took over the private sector telephone service in GB, except for a few local authority services. Those services all folded within a few years, the exception being Kingston upon Hull. Converting the Post Office into an industry, as opposed to a governmental department, was first discussed in 1932 by Lord Wolmer. In 1932 the Bridgeman Committee produced a report that was rejected, in 1961, more proposals were ignored
BT Group
–
The
BT Tower, originally the Post Office Tower, constructed between 1961 and 1964
BT Group
–
BT offices in
Madrid,
Spain
BT Group
–
The
Adastral Park campus at
Martlesham Heath in Suffolk, the principal site of
BT Research.
BT Group
–
The BT Centre was completed in 1985.
25.
Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
–
The Advertising Standards Authority is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is an organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances, the ASA is not funded by the British government, but by a levy on the advertising industry. Guy Parker has been chief executive of the ASA since June 2009, in 1961 the Advertising Association established the Committee of Advertising Practice to draft the British Code of Advertising Practice. In 1962 the industry set up the Advertising Standards Authority to adjudicate on complaints that advertisements had breached the new Code, the ASA operated under an independent chairman who was to have no vested interest within the industry. Not long after the inception of the ASA the Molony Committee considered but rejected proposals to introduce a system to regulate the industry by statute. The Committee reported that it was satisfied that the industry could be regulated effectively from within by the ASA, a guarded comment within the report, however, warned that the self-regulatory system depended upon the satisfactory working of the ASA and the maintaining of acceptable standards. Typically, advertisements that fall in paid-for spaces in newspapers and magazines published in the UK fall within the ASAs remit and this category covers reciprocal arrangements not involving actual payments of money. Advertorials are also within the bodies remit as long as an arrangement of some kind is in place. If the editor of the publication maintains control over the advertorial, however, in November 2004, control of the regulation of broadcast advertising, formerly undertaken by state bodies, was handed over to the ASA on a provisional two-year contract. Sponsorship credits are considered to be part of programming content and therefore fall outside the ASAs remit, direct mailings, circulars, leaflets, unsolicited emails, brochures and catalogues are all typically within the ASAs remit. Items such as timetables and price lists are, however, usually outside its remit, the non-geographical nature of the Internet can make it hard to determine whether the ASAs remit applies. Online sales promotions are within the ASAs remit as long as they appear in British web space. The Institute of Sales Promotion, working to the same Code as the ASA does, not all offers that give the consumer something free with a particular purchase may be considered sales promotion. For example, a mobile phone deal that offers a free Bluetooth headset may be considered as part of a deal rather than a sales promotion. The ASA needs the full name and address of the complainant in order to ensure that the complaint is legitimate and these details are never disclosed without the complainants permission, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Even in these cases the ASA can reveal details only with the permission of the complainant. If the complaint comes from a competitor or someone with a trade or vested interest with the advertiser about which they are complaining and this, according to the ASA, limits the number of petty or retaliatory complaints
Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
–
Advertising Standards Authority
26.
Sunday Times
–
The Sunday Times is the largest-selling British national newspaper in the quality press market category. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, Times Newspapers also publishes The Times. The two papers were founded independently and have been under common ownership only since 1966 and they were bought by News International in 1981. The Sunday Times occupies a dominant position in the quality Sunday market, its circulation of just under one million equals that of its rivals, The Sunday Telegraph and The Observer. While some other national newspapers moved to a format in the early 2000s. It sells more than twice as many copies as its sister paper, The Times, the Sunday Times has acquired a reputation for the strength of its investigative reporting – much of it by its award-winning Insight team – and also for its wide-ranging foreign coverage. It has a number of writers, columnists and commentators including Jeremy Clarkson. It was Britains first multi-section newspaper and remains substantially larger than its rivals, a typical edition contains the equivalent of 450 to 500 tabloid pages. Besides the main section, it has standalone News Review, Business, Sport, Money. There are three magazines and two tabloid supplements and it publishes The Sunday Times Bestseller List of books in Britain, and a list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, focusing on UK companies. It also organises The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, held annually, and The Sunday Times Festival of Education, the paper began publication on 18 February 1821 as The New Observer, but from 21 April its title was changed to the Independent Observer. On 20 October 1822 it was reborn as The Sunday Times, in January 1823, White sold the paper to Daniel Whittle Harvey, a radical politician. The paper was bought in 1887 by Alice Cornwell, whose father George Cornwell made a fortune in mining in Australia and she then sold it in 1893 to Frederick Beer, who already owned Observer. Beer appointed his wife, Rachel Sassoon Beer, as editor and she was already editor of Observer – the first woman to run a national newspaper – and continued to edit both titles until 1901. There was a change of ownership in 1903, and then in 1915 the paper was bought by William Berry and his brother, Gomer Berry, later ennobled as Lord Camrose. In 1943, the Kemsley Newspapers Group was established, with The Sunday Times becoming its flagship paper, at this time, Kemsley was the largest newspaper group in Britain. On 12 November 1945, Ian Fleming, who later created James Bond, joined the paper as foreign manager, the following month, circulation reached 500,000. On 28 September 1958 the paper launched a separate Review section, in 1959 the Kemsley group was bought by Lord Thomson, and in October 1960 circulation reached one million for the first time
Sunday Times
–
Plaque to The first number of The Sunday Times, 4 Salisbury Court, London EC4Y
Sunday Times
–
The Sunday Times
Sunday Times
–
Edition number 9,813 of The Sunday Times, published on 7 October 2012
27.
Mail on Sunday
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The Mail on Sunday is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere and its sister paper, the Daily Mail, was first published in 1896. Like the Daily Mail it is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust and it had an average daily circulation of 1,284,121 in December 2016. The Mail on Sunday was launched on 2 May 1982, to complement the Daily Mail, the first story on the front page was the Royal Air Forces bombing of Port Stanley airport in the Falkland Islands. Its sports coverage was seen to be among its weaknesses at the time of its launch, the Mail on Sundays first back-page splash was a report from the Netherlands on the rollerskating world championships, which led to the paper being ridiculed in the industry. Lord Rothermere, then the proprietor, brought in the Daily Mails editor David English who, with a force of new journalists. Over a period of three-and-a-half months English managed to halt the papers decline, three new sections were introduced, firstly a sponsored partwork, the initial one forming a cookery book, then a colour comic supplement, and lastly, a magazine – You magazine. The newspapers reputation was built on the work of its next editor, the newspapers circulation grew from around 1 million to just under 2 million during his time in charge. Although its sister paper the Daily Mail has invariably supported the Conservative Party, the subsequent editors were Jonathan Holborow, Peter Wright and, currently, Geordie Greig. At the 2015 general election The Mail on Sunday urged its readers to vote Conservative to prevent the country veering left under a Labour-SNP pact and it urged UKIP voters to please come home to the Conservatives as their protest has been registered. In the EU membership referendum, the paper came out unequivocally in favour of the Remain campaign, arguing that it would provide a safer, freer and more prosperous UK. The facts did not emerge until several years later, when they were revealed in evidence at the News of the World phone hacking trial, Wright became a member of the PCC from May 2008. He took over the previously held by the Daily Mails editor-in-chief Paul Dacre. The PCC issued two reports, in 2007 and 2009, which were compiled in ignorance of the significant information from the Mail group about the hacking of its journalists’ phones. The PCCs 2009 report, which had rejected Davies claims of widespread hacking at the News of the World, was retracted when it became clear that they were true. Wright and Dacre both also failed to mention the hacking of the four Mail on Sunday staff in the evidence they gave to the Leveson inquiry in 2012 and you – You magazine is a womens magazine featured in The Mail on Sunday. Its mix of features plus fashion, beauty advice, practical insights on health and relationships, food recipes. The Mail on Sunday is read by over six million a week, event – this magazine includes articles on the arts, books and culture and carries reviews of all media and entertainment forms and interviews with sector personalities
Mail on Sunday
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The Mail on Sunday
Mail on Sunday
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An issue of The Mail on Sunday from 25 November 2007 with all its supplements. The First magazine was included as a preview before it was released on general sale.
28.
USwitch
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USwitch. com is a UK-based price comparison service and switching website founded in 2000. The site allows consumers to compare prices for a range of energy, personal finance, insurance, uSwitchforBusiness. com is uSwitchs energy price comparison and brokerage service for businesses. In 2007, The Times regarded uSwitch as one of the two most established price comparison websites and highlighted it as being among the best money-saving websites for students. USwitch. com was founded by Lord Milford Haven in September 2000 with an initial £4 million investment to take advantage of the UK’s deregulated gas, the company subsequently expanded into the telephony and communications markets in 2001. In the same year it also bought competitor buy. co. uk followed by local community information website UpMyStreet. com in 2003, uSwitch. com was itself acquired by US media conglomerate, E. W. Scripps Company in March 2006 for £210 million. The purchase added a second freestanding interactive media business to its portfolio alongside leading US product price comparison site, Shopzilla. In February 2008, E. W. Scripps Company recorded a $411 million pre-tax charge related to the uSwitch acquisition, the scale of the writedown reflects more realistic revenue expectations due to lower than expected levels of switching. In December 2009, uSwitch was acquired by Forward Internet Group for $10.3 million in cash, Forward is a privately funded collection of internet-based businesses focused on consumer engagement and innovation. Forward3D is the groups 3D search agency and Forward Innovations is the division which focuses on price comparison and switching, including brands such as InvisibleHand. In June 2011, uSwitch acquired Top10. com, in August 2013, LDC backed an MBO of uSwitch, the private equity firm acquired a significant stake in the business with Forward Internet Group retaining a substantial minority holding. Both investors aligned with the management team who have a minority holding in the business. On 30 April 2015, the property website firm Zoopla agreed to purchase uSwitch from LDC for £160 million, uSwitch. com is a free, online and telephone-based comparison and switching service, helping consumers compare prices on energy, finance, insurance and other services. There are no costs to consumers for the service, the company instead receiving commission from some suppliers when a customer chooses to switch to them. USwitch provide several mechanisms designed to increase visibility for a fee. USwitch. com also has a London-based call centre and a Freepost ‘Send us your bill’ service, uSwitch was involved in the formation of the Confidence Code in 2002 with Consumer Focus, which managed the code until Ofgem took over in 2013. The company complied with requests and has remained accredited. In Ofgem’s September 2013 audit of the uSwitch. com website, uSwitch works with more than 130 direct partners and 2,000 affiliate partners, providing their web sites with co-branded comparison tools for a range of essential home services. USwitch’s calculators also appear on other websites
USwitch
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uSwitch
29.
Tele2
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Tele2 AB is a major European telecommunications operator, with about 14 million customers in 9 countries and with Headquarters in the Kista Science City, Stockholm, Sweden. It serves as a phone operator. Tele2 started as a company in Sweden in 1993 by the company Industriförvaltnings AB Kinnevik. In 1981, a mobile phone provider called Comvik started as a mobile phone operator to Televerket. The cable television provider Kabelvision AB started in 1986, Comvik changed its name to become Comviq when the company got a GSM license in 1988 and started operating in 1992. The three companies of Comviq, Kabelvision, and Tele2 came together as the Tele2 brand on fixed-line services, international growth came in the form of acquisitions in Estonia, Latvia, Russia & France. Today it serves as a telephone company in the Nordic and Baltic nations. Tele2 operates in Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, one area of notable success has been the growth of the mobile Internet broadband connectivity. Tele2 has achieved the most success in Russian market, with a customer base increasing by the hundreds of thousands yearly. In 2007 the company sold its holdings in Belgium to Dutch operator KPN, in France to SFR and activities in Spain and Italy to Vodafone Italy, in Portugal to Clix and in Switzerland to TDC Sunrise. In March 2008 Tele2 divested its Austrian MVNO operations to Telekom Austria, although retaining its fixed line, in June 2008 Tele2 sold its Liechtenstein and Luxembourg holdings to Belgian operator Belgacom. The same month Tele2 sold its Polish operations to Netia, Tele2 also tried to sell its German unit in 2007, although no sale actually took place. In 2005 they sold their UK & Ireland fixed operations to the Carphone Warehouse for £8. 7m, Tele2 operates in Austria since 1999, starting as an alternative fixed-line telephone operator. ADSL internet services were introduced in 2003, one Year later, Tele2 Austria bought UTA Telekom AG, a former competitor, and became the largest provider for alternative telecommunication service in Austria. In addition to services, Tele2 Austria is using their infrastructur for carrier services. In the first quarter of 2013, Tele2 Austria had an EBITDA of 38,2 Millionen Euro, in a brief press statement on 11 November 2014, the Sweden-based telecoms group has confirmed that it plans to re-enter the Austrian mobile sector in the second half of 2015. In Croatia, Tele2 operates a 3G network at 42.2 Mbit/s, same as competitors but at a wider area. It also operates a 4G network at up to 150 Mbit/s, as of October 2015, it has 885,542 customers
Tele2
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Countries in which Tele2 operates are in green, countries in which Tele2 no longer operates are in red.
30.
One.Tel
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The company was established by Jodee Rich and Brad Keeling and had high-profile backers such as the Murdoch and Packer families. James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch sat on the board of the company, One. Tel attempted to create a youth-oriented image to sell their mobile phones and One. Net internet services. It became Australias fourth largest telecommunications company before collapsing in 2001, Rich and Keeling continued to receive $7m in payments shortly before the company entered administration. The companys slogan was Youll tell your friends about One. Tel, the company also had a cartoon mascot known as The Dude. The Dude was a depiction of a man in his early twenties, drawn by Adam Long. One Tel began operations in May 1995, in 1999 One. Tels Next Generation 3GSM1800 network was launched by joint CEOs of the mobile business, Stephen Moore and David Wright in Sydney, Australia. The original thought process began with an initiative, they wanted to start a new telephone company. The company was very focused and focused on the residential market. At that time, the Company was firmly established in the market, with operations in Australia, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich, Frankfurt. One. Tel had three core product offerings, fixed wire long distance, Internet service provision and mobile telephony, from 1998 through to 2000, One. Tel’s customer base more than tripled to 2.2 million and revenues doubled to $653 million. The business grew rapidly in Europe, in December 1998 Project GSM was developed by Jodee Rich, Bradley Keeling, Kevin Beck, Stephen Moore and Alicia Crisp. This initial concept became the foundation for the One. Tel Next Gen 3GSM cellular network in Australia, in February 1999, News Corporation and Publishing and Broadcasting Limited injected $709 million over three years. In March 2000 One. Tel was successful in acquiring 15 MHz spectrum across all major capital cities, the One. Tel Next Generation Network was launched nationally six months ahead of schedule. By May 2000 One. Tel had operations in seven countries, over 1,900,000 active customers and was connecting over 250, Jodee Rich and Brad Keeling decided to start a telephone company in August 1994. Jodee Rich developed a plan for the company in September 1994. The ownership structure of the company in February 1995 was, Optus 28. 5%, FAI 18%, James Packer 5%, Kalara Investments was owned by Jodee Rich and Brad Keeling. The total initial seed capital for One. Tel was approximately $5 million, One. Tel was officially launched by Rodney Adler on 1 May 1995. The link with Australias second largest telecommunications company, Optus, proved crucial to the early success
One.Tel
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One.Tel
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