TDC Group Annual Report 2011(6,4MB) - TDC Annual Report 2011

TDC during 130 years
TDC turns 130 years of age
on 21 August 2012
On 21 August 2012, TDC will celebrate its 130 th birthday.
On that day 130 years ago, Kjøbenhavns Telefon Selskab
(KTS) was founded, which later became part of TDC.
On 21 August 1882, C.F. Tietgen, the leading Danish
financier at the time, took over The International Bell
Telephone Company, an American-owned telephone
exchange on Lille Kongensgade in Copenhagen, for DKK
200,000 and founded Kjøbenhavns Telefon Selskab (KTS),
later renamed Kjøbenhavns Telefon Aktieselskab (KTAS).
Telephony becomes popular
Telephony quickly became popular and the subscriber base
grew from 400 in 1882 to 25,000 by 1900. Several local
telephone companies were established to serve the
growing market, and by the end of the 1890s there were
about 57 telephone companies. In order to raise
technological standards in a highly fragmented market, the
Danish Parliament established a monopoly in 1897 on the
construction and operation of telephone networks. This
right was passed on through concessions to a number of
TDC Group Annual Report 2011
large regional companies that were able to meet a range of
technological requirements. As a result, a market
consolidation process started and by the end of the 19 th
century, only 11 companies were granted concessions.
Landline telephony
During the first few years of landline telephony,
telephone subscribers were connected mainly via
overhead lines fixed to chimney stands and house roofs.
As technology developed, the entire network of cables
was replaced by underground cables. In 1999, TDC had
reached 3.2 million landline telephony customer
relationships, but in the following years, demand for
landline telephony slowly began to decline as a result of
the increasing popularity of mobile phones.
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