Did you know?

No phone numbers were included in the first telephone book in 1880 - only the addresses of the 248 subscribers to the Telephone Company were listed, and if you wanted to phone somebody, you had to phone the operator and ask to speak to the person by name!

Early telephone kiosks were built out of concrete. The famous red telephone boxes, which are an iconic part of the British landscape, were launched in 1936 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and one was installed in every town or village with a post office across the UK, leading to the introduction of over 8000 kiosks.

The Speaking Clock was first introduced in 1936. There have only ever been four voices of the Speaking Clock in its 75 year history - Jane Cain (1936-1963), Pat Simmons (1963-1985), Brian Cobby (1985-2007) and Sara Mendes de Costa (2007-). Sara was named as the latest voice of the Speaking Clock on 17th November 2006 on Children in Need, following a nationwide competition. People were invited to phone in to leave a recording of their voice, with proceeds from the calls going to Children in Need.

The 999 emergency number was introduced in London in 1937, before being introduced across the rest of the UK. It resulted in a buzzing and a red light flashing in the telephone exchange to alert the operator to the emergency.

From 1880 until 1951 the telephone was only recognised in UK law as being a form of telegraph.

It wasn't until 1959 that the curly chord connecting the handset to the telephone made its first appearance.

Prime Minister Harold Wilson opened the Post Office Tower in London (now the BT Tower) on Friday 8th October 1965. It was Britain's tallest building until 1980, when it was overtaken by the Natwest Tower.

British Telecoms introduced its first Answering and Recording Machine No 101 in 1981. The Post Office had previously released Answering Machine No 1 in 1958, which only played a 20 second message twice to ensure callers heard it, but didn't take messages. Answering Machine No 2 was introduced in 1963, allowing for a message of up to 3 minutes, but still no messages.

The first card phones were introduced in 1981, and the first pay phone that took credit cards were opened in 1985 at Heathrow and Waterloo.

Britain's 100,000th BT payphone was installed in 1992 at the village of Dunsop Bridge near Lancaster in the Forest of Bowland. This is the closest village to the centre of Great Britain.