1.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
2.
General Post Office
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The General Post Office was officially established in England in 1660 by Charles II and it eventually grew to combine the functions of state postal system and telecommunications carrier. Similar General Post Offices were established across the British Empire, in 1969 the GPO was abolished and the assets transferred to The Post Office, changing it from a Department of State to a statutory corporation. For the more recent history of the system in the United Kingdom, see the article Royal Mail. Originally, the GPO was a monopoly covering the despatch of items from a sender to a specific receiver. The postal service was known as the Royal Mail because it was built on the system for royal. In 1661 the office of Postmaster General was created to oversee the GPO, the GPO created a network of post offices where senders could submit items. All post was transferred from the post office of origination to distribution points called sorting stations, initially it was the recipient of the post who paid the fee, and he had the right to refuse to accept the item if he did not wish to pay. The charge was based on the distance the item had been carried so the GPO had to keep an account for each item. The first general post office in London opened in 1643, just 8 years after King Charles I legalised use of the posts for private correspondence. It was probably on Cloak Lane near Dowgate Hill, coffee houses in the City such as Lloyds and Garraways organised private transport of mail among their patrons. The Royal Mail moved its headquarters to Lombard Street in the City in 1678 to better curtail such practices, when the Central London Railway was built in 1900 its nearby station was named Post Office. Smirkes building was felt to be too small by this time, however, in 1912, the former GPO East was demolished, the current headquarters of BT, a post World War II building, occupies the site of the old Telegraph Office. The theory was used to state control of the mail service into every form of electronic communication possible on the basis that every sender used some form of distribution service. These distribution services were considered in law as forms of electronic post offices and this applied to telegraph and telephone switching stations. In the mid 19th century several private companies were established in the UK. The responsibility for the electric telegraphs was officially transferred to the GPO on Friday,4 February 1870, overseas telegraphs did not fall within the monopoly. The private telegraph companies that existed were bought out. The new combined telegraph service had 1,058 telegraph offices in towns,6,830,812 telegrams were transmitted in 1869 producing revenue of £550,000
3.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
4.
BT Group
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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
5.
British Rail
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British Railways, which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies and lasted until the privatisation of British Rail. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, the period of nationalisation saw sweeping changes in the national railway network. A process of dieselisation and electrification took place, and by 1968 steam locomotion had been replaced by diesel and electric traction. Passengers replaced freight as the source of business, and one-third of the network was closed by the Beeching Axe of the 1960s in an effort to reduce rail subsidies. On privatisation, responsibility for track, signalling and stations was transferred to Railtrack, the British Rail double arrow logo is formed of two interlocked arrows showing the direction of travel on a double track railway and was nicknamed the arrow of indecision. The rail transport system in Great Britain developed during the 19th century, during World War I the railways were under state control, which continued until 1921. Complete nationalisation had been considered, and the Railways Act 1921 is sometimes considered as a precursor to that, nationalisation was subsequently carried out after World War II, under the Transport Act 1947. This Act made provision for the nationalisation of the network, as part of a policy of nationalising public services by Clement Attlees Labour Government. British Railways came into existence as the name of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission on 1 January 1948 when it took over the assets of the Big Four. There were also joint railways between the Big Four and a few railways to consider. Excluded from nationalisation were industrial lines like the Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway, the London Underground – publicly owned since 1933 – was also nationalised, becoming the London Transport Executive of the British Transport Commission. The Bicester Military Railway was already run by the government, the electric Liverpool Overhead Railway was also excluded from nationalisation. The Railway Executive was conscious that some lines on the network were unprofitable and hard to justify socially, however, the general financial position of BR became gradually poorer, until an operating loss was recorded in 1955. The Executive itself had abolished in 1953 by the Conservative government. Other changes to the British Transport Commission at the time included the return of road haulage to the private sector. British Railways was divided into regions which were based on the areas the former Big Four operated in, later. Western Region of British Railways, former Great Western Railway lines, London Midland Region of British Railways, former London Midland and Scottish Railway lines in England
6.
Optical fiber
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An optical fiber or optical fibre is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Fibers are also used for illumination, and are wrapped in bundles so that they may be used to carry images, thus allowing viewing in confined spaces, as in the case of a fiberscope. Specially designed fibers are used for a variety of other applications, some of them being fiber optic sensors. Optical fibers typically include a transparent core surrounded by a transparent cladding material with an index of refraction. Light is kept in the core by the phenomenon of internal reflection which causes the fiber to act as a waveguide. Fibers that support many propagation paths or transverse modes are called multi-mode fibers, multi-mode fibers generally have a wider core diameter and are used for short-distance communication links and for applications where high power must be transmitted. Single-mode fibers are used for most communication links longer than 1,000 meters, being able to join optical fibers with low loss is important in fiber optic communication. This is more complex than joining electrical wire or cable and involves careful cleaving of the fibers, precise alignment of the cores. For applications that demand a permanent connection a fusion splice is common, in this technique, an electric arc is used to melt the ends of the fibers together. Another common technique is a splice, where the ends of the fibers are held in contact by mechanical force. Temporary or semi-permanent connections are made by means of specialized optical fiber connectors, the field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers is known as fiber optics. The term was coined by Indian physicist Narinder Singh Kapany who is acknowledged as the father of fiber optics. Guiding of light by refraction, the principle that makes fiber optics possible, was first demonstrated by Daniel Colladon, John Tyndall included a demonstration of it in his public lectures in London,12 years later. When the ray passes from water to air it is bent from the perpendicular. If the angle which the ray in water encloses with the perpendicular to the surface be greater than 48 degrees, the angle which marks the limit where total reflection begins is called the limiting angle of the medium. For water this angle is 48°27′, for flint glass it is 38°41′, unpigmented human hairs have also been shown to act as an optical fiber. Practical applications, such as close internal illumination during dentistry, appeared early in the twentieth century, image transmission through tubes was demonstrated independently by the radio experimenter Clarence Hansell and the television pioneer John Logie Baird in the 1920s. The principle was first used for medical examinations by Heinrich Lamm in the following decade
7.
Copper
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Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of copper has a reddish-orange color. Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable metallic form as opposed to needing extraction from an ore and this led to very early human use, from c.8000 BC. Copper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris, Copper is sometimes used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as pigments. Copper compounds are used as agents, fungicides, and wood preservatives. Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the hemoglobin in fish. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, muscle, the adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram of body weight. The filled d-shells in these elements contribute little to interatomic interactions, unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of copper, at the macroscopic scale, introduction of extended defects to the crystal lattice, such as grain boundaries, hinders flow of the material under applied stress, thereby increasing its hardness. For this reason, copper is supplied in a fine-grained polycrystalline form. The softness of copper partly explains its high conductivity and high thermal conductivity. The maximum permissible current density of copper in open air is approximately 3. 1×106 A/m2 of cross-sectional area, Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural color other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a reddish tarnish when exposed to air, as with other metals, if copper is put in contact with another metal, galvanic corrosion will occur. A green layer of verdigris can often be seen on old structures, such as the roofing of many older buildings. Copper tarnishes when exposed to sulfur compounds, with which it reacts to form various copper sulfides. There are 29 isotopes of copper, 63Cu and 65Cu are stable, with 63Cu comprising approximately 69% of naturally occurring copper, both have a spin of 3⁄2
8.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
9.
Channel Tunnel
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At its lowest point, it is 75 m deep below the sea bed, and 115 m below sea level. The speed limit for trains in the tunnel is 160 kilometres per hour, the tunnel carries high-speed Eurostar passenger trains, the Eurotunnel Shuttle for road vehicles—the largest such transport in the world—and international freight trains. The tunnel connects end-to-end with the LGV Nord and High Speed 1 high-speed railway lines, ideas for a cross-Channel fixed link appeared as early as 1802, but British political and press pressure over the compromising of national security stalled attempts to construct a tunnel. An early attempt at building a Channel Tunnel was made in the late 19th century, the eventual successful project, organised by Eurotunnel, began construction in 1988 and opened in 1994. At £5.5 billion, it was at the time the most expensive project ever proposed. The cost finally came in at £9 billion, well over its predicted budget, since its construction, the tunnel has faced several problems. Both fires and cold weather have temporarily disrupted its operation, illegal immigrants have attempted to use the tunnel to enter the UK, causing a minor diplomatic disagreement over the siting of the refugee camp at Sangatte, which was eventually closed in 2002. Migrants have also died attempting to cross through the tunnel, in 1839, Aimé Thomé de Gamond, a Frenchman, performed the first geological and hydrographical surveys on the Channel, between Calais and Dover. In 1865, a deputation led by George Ward Hunt proposed the idea of a tunnel to the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the day, around 1866, William Low and Sir John Hawkshaw promoted ideas, but apart from preliminary geological studies none were implemented. An official Anglo-French protocol was established in 1876 for a railway tunnel. On the English side a 2. 13-metre diameter Beaumont-English boring machine dug a 1, on the French side, a similar machine dug 1,669 m from Sangatte. The project was abandoned in May 1882, owing to British political and these early works were encountered more than a century later during the TML project. The French did not take the idea seriously and nothing came of Lloyd Georges proposal, in 1929 there was another proposal but nothing came of this discussion and the idea was shelved. Proponents estimated construction to be about US$150 million, the engineers had addressed the concerns of both nations military leaders by designing two sumps—one near the coast of each country—that could be flooded at will to block the tunnel. This design feature did not override the concerns of both military leaders, and other concerns about hordes of undesirable tourists who would disrupt English habits of living. Military fears continued during World War II, the estimate caused rumours that Germany had already begun digging. In 1935, a British film from Gaumont Studios, The Tunnel and it referred briefly to its protagonist, a Mr. McAllan, as having completed a British Channel tunnel successfully in 1940, five years into the future of the films release. By 1955, defence arguments had become less relevant due to the dominance of air power, in 1958 the 1881 workings were cleared in preparation for a £100,000 geological survey by the Channel Tunnel Study Group
10.
Submarine communications cable
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A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the sea bed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean. The first submarine communications cables, laid in the 1850s, carried telegraphy traffic, subsequent generations of cables carried telephone traffic, then data communications traffic. Modern cables use optical technology to carry digital data, which includes telephone, Internet. Samuel Morse proclaimed his faith in it as early as 1840, and in 1842, he submerged a wire, insulated with tarred hemp and India rubber, in the water of New York Harbor, the following autumn, Wheatstone performed a similar experiment in Swansea Bay. A good insulator to cover the wire and prevent the current from leaking into the water was necessary for the success of a long submarine line. India rubber had been tried by Moritz von Jacobi, the Prussian electrical engineer, another insulating gum which could be melted by heat and readily applied to wire made its appearance in 1842. Gutta-percha, the juice of the Palaquium gutta tree, was introduced to Europe by William Montgomerie. Twenty years earlier, he had seen made of it in Singapore. It was tried on a wire laid across the Rhine between Deutz and Cologne, walker, electrician to the South Eastern Railway, submerged a two-mile wire coated with gutta-percha off the coast from Folkestone, which was tested successfully. It was simply a copper wire coated with gutta-percha, without any other protection, in 1853 further successful cables were laid, linking Great Britain with Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands, and crossing The Belts in Denmark. The British & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company completed the first successful Irish link on May 23 between Portpatrick and Donaghadee using the collier William Hutt, the same ship was used for the link from Dover to Ostend in Belgium, by the Submarine Telegraph Company. Meanwhile, the Electric & International Telegraph Company completed two cables across the North Sea, from Orford Ness to Scheveningen, The Netherlands and they were laid by the Monarch, a paddle steamer which later became the first vessel with permanent cable-laying equipment. In 1858 the Steamship Elba was used to lay a Telegraph cable from Jersey to Guernsey, on to Alderney, problems soon developed with eleven breaks occurring by 1860 due to storms, tidal and sand movements and wear on rocks. A report to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1860 set out the problems to assist in future cable laying operations, the first attempt at laying a transatlantic telegraph cable was promoted by Cyrus West Field, who persuaded British industrialists to fund and lay one in 1858. However, the technology of the day was not capable of supporting the project, it was plagued with problems from the outset, and was in operation for only a month. Subsequent attempts in 1865 and 1866 with the worlds largest steamship, Great Eastern later went on to lay the first cable reaching to India from Aden, Yemen, in 1870. From the 1850s until 1911, British submarine cable systems dominated the most important market, the British had both supply side and demand side advantages. In terms of supply, Britain had entrepreneurs willing to put forth enormous amounts of capital necessary to build, lay, in terms of demand, Britains vast colonial empire led to business for the cable companies from news agencies, trading and shipping companies, and the British government
11.
EE Limited
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EE is a British mobile network operator, Internet service provider and a division of BT Group. It was established in 2010 as a 50,50 joint venture between Deutsche Telekom and Orange S. A. through the merger of their respective T-Mobile and Orange businesses in the UK. It is the largest mobile operator in the UK, with around 30 million customers. EE is headquartered in Hatfield in the United Kingdom and also has offices in Bristol, Darlington, Greenock, North Tyneside, Plymouth, Leeds. In addition to telephone services, EE also provides an IPTV service through its EE TV Box. As of 23 November 2016, EEs 4G & 2G networks combined coverage reaches more than 99% of the UK population, Deutsche Telekom and France Télécom announced plans to merge their respective UK ventures T-Mobile UK and Orange UK on 8 September 2009. The initial planning suggested a joint revenue of around £7.7 billion for 2008 with savings via synergies expected to total around over £445 million annually from 2014 onwards, the two companies also announced an expected investment of £600 to £800 million in integration costs. The initial press release outlined a primarily clear vision for the two brands citing that the T-Mobile UK and Orange UK brands will be maintained separately for 18 months, the merger was cleared by the European Commission on 1 March 2010. The joint venture was announced as completed on 1 April 2010, the companies network sharing plans were released to customers on 11 October 2010. The switch-on was rolled out utilising an opt-in page on each brands website, however, the rollout did not initially include automatic network roaming mid-call or the two brands 3G services. On 18 July 2011, Tom Alexander announced unexpectedly that he would step down as CEO, Alexander had joined Orange in 2008 and had led the company since its formation on 1 July 2010. Alexander said that he would remain with the company throughout the remainder of 2011, on 2 November 2011 Everything Everywhere announced plans to cut a further 550 back office staff, with its sites in Bristol, Darlington, Hatfield, and Paddington affected. In April 2012, the T-Mobile network in Northern Ireland was switched off, however, later most T-Mobile sites were turned back on as EE has a mast sharing agreement with 3. Further speculation commenced on 7 September 2012 when the company announced details of a conference on the morning of 11 September 2012. Other commentators suggested that the HTC One XL would be the first handset to launch utilising Everything Everywheres 4G network. The handsets that the initially launched on EE are the iPhone 5, HTC One XL, Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy Note II, Huawei Ascend P1, Nokia Lumia 920. The company also announced that they would be using two 4G mobile broadband devices manufactured by Huawei - the E589 Mobile Wi-Fi device and E392 mobile broadband dongle, the brand was described by EE as The Super Fast Brand. It was also confirmed that all ex-Orange and ex-T-Mobile shops would be re-branded EE overnight, the companys legal name changed to EE Limited on 2 September 2013
12.
Hutchison 3G
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The company was founded in 2002. CK Hutchison Holdings owns direct majority interests in the companies operate the networks that are branded 3. These networks are majority-owned by Hutchison Asia Telecommunications, an owned subsidiary of CK Hutchison. Its operations in Europe are run by a division,3 Group Europe. All 3-branded networks provide 4G and 3G technology, Hutchison Whampoa no longer holds a 3G licence in Israel which was operated under the brand Orange, and in Norway which is not operational yet. As of 30 June 2015, registered 3 customers worldwide numbered over 30.1 million, besides that,3 UK and also 3 Ireland initially made the decision to block direct Internet access from handsets, while 3 Austria allowed access to the Internet since the beginning. In 2004,3 released a PC Card 3G Data Card for Windows-based laptops which allows Internet access through 3s network directly from the computer, accompanied by a range of data, later, more cards and USB modems for HSDPA were introduced. The phones were sold exclusively by 3 on contract and on a prepaid basis,3 also produced an application called Skype on 3 which brought the same functionality to S60 and J2ME-capable phones. 3 does not charge users for calls to this number and this service is available in Australia, Ireland and the UK, it has been discontinued in Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy and Sweden. A company called iSkoot was behind at least some of the clients and back-end servers and it appears this shutdown initially affected the J2ME version and some Skypephones, but some S60 versions were not affected. Skype have started sending emails indicating the Skype on 3 service will be terminated on 30 September 2014, in spite of Threes original free for life advertising. The recommended clients for smartphones will use the data connection which may be liable to charges, instead of the dedicated access number used by the client. This also allows users to use their free or inclusive bundles and allowances while abroad, however, pre-pay customers do not benefit fully, as they can not yet use each 3 branded network for 3 Like Home. 3 Australia confirm that calls made using 3 Like Home are not included in any cap plan or inclusive bundles and this arrangement is possible because of the roaming agreements between the networks. Each of the networks provides service to other partners networks free of roaming charges. This means that the marginal cost of a call is much the same as a call on the home network. At the end of April 2009,3 UK announced that 3 Like Home would no longer be available to customers of the 3 UK network from 30 June 2009, on 7 April 2010,3 Sweden announced that 3 Like Home would be discontinued on 23 May 2010. No cancellation announcements have yet made for customers of other 3 networks
