The Phonebook.com is a directory part of BT Group
edited from London, United Kingdom.

The directory is now fully integrated into the BT.com website.
The "ThePhonebook.com" domain is redirected to BT.com

Until June 2001 British Telecom published
a previous directory, called Yellow Pages.

The directory (name shortened to Yell.com)
was sold as part of a restructuring and debt reduction program.
"Yellow Pages" and "White Pages" are the expressions
used in most countries of the world
to designate phone directories.

The BT.com domain is one of the only 696 ultra short "TWO Letter .com domains". It is also one of the World's oldest ones registered 1992 june 18 directly by British Telecom. At that time only few companies were aware of the internet and very few had the idea to register such a short web domain. "Two Letter .com" are now getting immense value.

Until 1991 BT was called British Telecom.
Until 1984 British Telecom had the exclusive right
to operate Telecom Services in the US.
All over Europe Telephone companies
were part of the national PTTs
(Post Telephone and Telegraph).

Between 1982 and 1984
the British government of Margaret Thatcher privatized
the formally state owned company British Telecom.
1981 British Telecom was created
with a law called the British Telecommunications act
transferring the responsability of Telecom service from the Post Office
to a new corporation.

1969 the General Post office replaced by The Post Office,
changing it from a Department of State to a statutory corporation.


1912 the General Post Office became the monoply supplier
of telephone services in the UK
for all cities exept Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire and Guernsey.
1878 the United Kingdom Telephone Service
started with private companies, mainly
the National Telephone Company (NTC)
and the The General Post Office (GPO).
1896 GPO took over NTC.


1878 Alexander Bellcame to England to demonstrate
the telephone he had invented in 1876
to Queen Victoria.

1660 The General Post Office (GPO) was officially established
in England by King Charles II .
A Postmaster General was overseeing the company.
11 years later, 1671 Leon Pajot and Louis Rouille
started in Paris
at the Hotel de Villeroy Bouron (VB)
9 rue des Déchargeurs
the Royal Postal Services in France.
Letters between France and the UK
transited by VB.

Two hundered years later opened at the exact same
spot the Cremerie de Paris
from where in 2000 was invented the Phonebook of the World.
In the 1990s one of the first Internet cafes,
Cremerie de Paris became a Hotpot for Brand Expos,
The courtyard is still exactly the same)

Initially a state postal system
GPO later also became a telecommunications carrier.



see also the history of BT