BT Global Services

Renaming

BT Group began operating as a private corporation after the Telecommunications Act 1984.

During the 1990s, between the loosening of national telecom monopolies and the current (largely) liberalised market, BT Group entered into a number of alliances in order to serve its mainly, then, UK-based multi-national customers. From the 90's through the early 2000s, BT Group, then known as British Telecom, struggled. The company failed to secure a strong partner, struggled to expand internationally, and had significant debt.

In 2002, the attempt at an alliance (Concert 2 with AT&T) was disbanded. Thereafter, the company brought together a number of joint ventures, partly owned assets and wholly owned subsidiaries into the single entity that exists today.

On April 1, 2002, BT's contracts with former Concert customers were transferred to BT Global and BT Retail. BT Ignite was renamed BT Global in April 2003. By late 2003, around 50% of BT Global's ~5,000 staff members were employed outside the UK.

Acquisitions

Between 2002 and 2009, the Global division made a string of acquisitions to expand its global footprint and broaden its business offer to customers. Most notable are Radianz, the then network arm of Reuters in 2005; the global network operator Infonet in 2005;

managed security market leader Counterpane in 2006;

US IT consultancy company International Network Services Corp. (INS) in 2007;

and Asian systems integrator Frontline in 2008. In 2016, Global signed an agreement to acquire IP Trade S.A., a provider of unified communications and collaboration services for trading floor environments and command-and-control dispatch centres.