Training for the GPO

Back in 1973, the BBC made a series of films entitled, "A Job Worth Doing". One such film followed the training of Southend apprentice Ian Talbot and Grimsby postal officer Wendy Robinson.

"Ian Talbot is 18 and coming to the end of his second year as a Trainee Technician Apprentice..."

International Operators

On my 16th birthday, 1st July 1974, via an advert in the Daily Mirror I applied to become an International Telephone Operator at LFICC/E, otherwise known as Faraday Building. My training was at London Wall, where I learned how to fill in, and annotate the rear of, the machine-readable charging dockets, and memorised an international alphabet.

Faraday Switchroom 2A

Look in on Faraday 2A. Malcolm Knight recalls some of his time 'on the board' and as manager of this busy unit...

In these sections we take a more detailed (coming soon) look at the work of Operator Services which evolved into the automatic Inland Switching  of calls and subsequently International Switching of calls. All of this 'white heat' of new technology, which began in the 1960s, is symbolised by the Post Office Tower, the very icon of communications in this modern age...

The Switchroom

The Switchroom, heart of the Operator Services; connecting calls, dealing with emergencies, providing a public service.

Today, there are very few calls that cannot be directly dialled by the customer, but this was not always the case...

Inland Switching

Inland Switching

In the 21st century, virtually all (UK) telephone and data traffic is processed by digital switches. In this section we look back to a time when Strowger, Crossbar and Electronic switching carried the bulk of the calls...

We also find out about the development of Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) which greatly simplified the call set-up process.

International Switching

The first International Subscriber Dialling (ISD) call was made by the Lord Mayor of London (Sir Ralph Perring) at 11am on 8th March 1963. Calling from Fleet Building, he dialled 13 digits and was connected to Monsieur Jacques Marette, the French Minister of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones, in Paris.

The BT Tower

The changing face of the BT Tower, London. Developed for BT by Wolff Ollins, the "connected world" globe was originally used exclusively as the logo for BT Openworld. However, on 7th April 2003, this logo was adopted as the new BT corporate image. But it was not until 29th March 2004 that a representation of the logo appeared at the top of the Tower. The realisation of the project involved many months of planning and implementation...