BT, once the UK’s monopoly telephone provider, was restructured in 2005. After the UK’s main telecom regulator Ofcom issued its Telecommunications Strategic Review (TSR) in September 2005, BT created Openreach, a division that’s responsible for managing the UK access network, providing equal access to BT and other competitive service providers. In addition to Openreach, BT operates three other divisions: BT Retail, BT Wholesale and BT Global Services.

Founded in 1981, the company was formerly known as Newgate Telecommunications Limited and changed its name to BT Group plc in Sept. 2001. The company is based in London. The BT Global Services segment provides networked IT services to multinational corporations, domestic businesses, and government departments. The BT Retail segment offers broadband, telephony, and TV services, as well as IT and telephony for small-medium sized businesses in the UK. It also provides video and telephone conferencing, CCTV, and alarm systems. This segment serves corporate, small and medium enterprises, consumer, and wholesale markets in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland. The Openreach segment connects communications providers' customers to their local telephone exchange, giving them access to the UK network. The BT Wholesale segment offers broadband, voice, and data connectivity services, interconnect to bespoke and managed network outsourcing, and value-added solutions to the communications providers in the United Kingdom, as well as a range of managed solutions and software driven, Web 2.0 services.