Google is suing BT, claiming the British telecoms group has infringed a number of its technologies.

BBC: BT Tower

The Electric Telegraph Company was founded in 1846, and there are probably parts of the British telecoms infrastructure older than Oklahoman statehood.

FORBES: Britain's First Gigabit FTTH, and the Danger of a Data Gap

British Telecoms (BT), the UK's largest net access provider, said it was "not economically viable" to take fibre all the way into homes.

BBC: A slow route to faster broadband

But the British telecoms giant was reported to have impressed mutual fund managers, with a number urging the German firm's boss to negotiate a deal.

BBC: Fund managers back Vodafone

BT, a British telecoms company that buys products vetted in Banbury, says it has not had any security issues with them (though it rechecks everything itself, just to be sure).

ECONOMIST: Huawei

The British and Americans point out that telecoms also have military uses.

ECONOMIST: On the very eve, Baghdadis were still optimistic

By squeezing telecoms companies dry, the British government will deprive the industry of money needed for investment, and hold it back for years.

ECONOMIST: What am I bid?

British news reports say Huawei's in discussions to purchase struggling telecoms icon Marconi.

NPR: Chinese Telecom Companies Look to Global Markets

But full competition did not hit the British market until March 1991, when the government issued a white paper on telecoms policy, which effectively brought to an end the duopoly shared by BT and Mercury.

BBC: BT: From telegraphs to the internet

Britain's telecoms regulator, Oftel, has been criticised for failing to crack the whip over British Telecom.

ECONOMIST: High-speed Internet access

It would surely be run close by the ghastly low-slung British embassy, now, amazingly, disposed of by some salesman of genius to a German telecoms group.

ECONOMIST: Adieu to a small club in Germany