How it started
Early history
In 1879, Kjøbenhavns By- og Hustelegraf was established by telegraph engineer Severin Lauritzen and telegraphist Th. Thaulow. The company set up private telephone lines over shorter distances, for example between offices and factories. In addition, it offered telegraph service in Copenhagen using small telegraph stations around the city that could communicate by telephone.
In 1881, the International Bell Telephone Company, the European subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, set up its first telephone exchange on Lille Kongensgade in Copenhagen, serving 22 business customers. On 21 August 1882, Carl Frederik Tietgen acquired the Danish operations of International Bell Telephone Company for DKK 200,000 and founded Kjøbenhavns Telefon-Selskab (KTS), later Kjøbenhavns Telefon Aktieselskab (KTAS).
In 1927, the Post- og Telegrafvæsenet (P&T; lit. the Postal and Telegraph Service) was created as Denmark's government-run postal, telegraph and telephone service, from a merger of the Danish Post Office and the Danish Telegraph Service. Reforms to the P&T from 1986 led to it being split into one Directorate-General and six state-owned enterprises.
Expansion and merger
In November 1990, the Folketing passed a law that paved the way for a nationwide Danish telecom, spun out from the P&T. The company was named Tele Danmark and was the parent company for the existing regional companies (KTAS, Jydsk Telefon, Tele Sønderjylland, Fyns Telefon, and Rigstelefonen).
From Wikipedia’s article on TDC, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2