At The Third Stroke BTs Speaking Clock Will Be 75 Years Old; Call the Speaking Clock to hear Sundays birthday message.

M2 PRESSWIRE-July 20, 2011-: At The Third Stroke BTs Speaking Clock Will Be 75 Years Old; Call the Speaking Clock to hear Sundays birthday message(C)1994-2011 M2 COMMUNICATIONS

RDATE:20072011

Britains famous Speaking Clock celebrates its 75th birthday on July 24, 2011. Now a national institution and part of Britains heritage, the Speaking Clock was the first of the pre-recorded information services in the UK, provided through telephones.

Created for people who wanted to know the time and did not have a watch or clock to hand, the clock was initially only available in the London directory area, with the first British Speaking Clock introduced on July 24, 1936.

The Speaking Clock was designed and constructed at the Post Office Engineering Research Station at Dollis Hill in North London. The time announcements were automatically co-ordinated on the hour with Greenwich meantime signals.

In order to access the service, subscribers would dial the first three letters of the word time as dials at the time included letters as well as numbers to aid automatic calls. Dialling T. I. M. led to its common name 'TIM'. The service went national six years later.

Today, around 30 million calls every year are made to the service, now officially called Timeline. People dial 123 in the UK to hear the modern service.

The voice of the BT Speaking Clock is as famous as the facility itself, with only four permanent voices ever used. Although there have been other voices used for charity events. They included Lenny Henry who recorded a special version in aid of Comic Relief for a two week period in March 2003. Later on that same year, 12 year old Alicia Roland won the same opportunity, this time for Childline.

Mae Whitman, the voice of Disneys Tinkerbell, also became the voice for the Speaking Clock in January 2009, coinciding with the Tinkerbell film released at the same time. Also in 2009 Comic Relief helped raise money with celebrity voices such as Gary Barlow, Cheryl Cole, Chris Moyles, Kimberley Walsh and Fearne Cotton.

Jane Cain was the first voice, winner of a Post Office Golden Voice competition, and used from 1936 until 1963. Pat Simmons, a London telephone exchange supervisor, became the second voice from 1963 until 1985. The third voice belonged to Brian Cobby who became the first male voice at 11am on April 2, 1985. An actor by profession before he joined BT as an assistant supervisor at a Brighton exchange, Brian was selected from 12 finalists in BTs competition on December 5, 1984.

Users who were around in the 1960s who listen hard enough might detect a familiarity Brian was also the voice of 5-4-3-2-1 Thunderbirds are go! in the famous Gerry Anderson TV series.

The fourth and current voice is Sara Mendes da Costa from Brighton & Hove. She became Speaking Clock voice at 8am on April 2, 2007. Sara won a BT competition during 2006 to find a new voice from the public, which had almost 18,500 entrants, simultaneously raising more than 200,000 for BBC Children in Need.

Originally the accuracy of the BT Speaking Clock was one-tenth of a second, but it is now accurate to within five thousandths of a second.

David Hay, head of BT Heritage, said: 75 years ago BT's technology created the speaking clock which remains a much loved part of British life today. Celebrating its diamond jubilee demonstrates BT's determination to preserve the heritage of the world's oldest communications company.

Quick facts

* The UK Speaking Clock was the first in the world.

* Big Ben checks its time with the Speaking Clock

* The Speaking Clock is accurate to within five thousandths of a second

* In its first year the service registered nearly 13 million calls

* Initially only available in the London and went nationwide in 1942

* The Speaking Clock is also known as TIM and Timeline

* Accurist was the sponsor from 1986 for 22 years

* Permanent voices

First voice - Jane Cain 1936 - 1963

Second voice - Pat Simmons - 1963 - 1985

Third voice - Brian Cobby - 1985 - 2007

Fourth voice - Sara Mendes da Costa - 2007 to present

* Other Voices:

Lenny Henry Comic Relief 2003

Alicia Roland ChildLine 2003.

Mae Whitman, Tinker Bell 2008

UK celebrities for Comic Relief 2009 - Gary Barlow, Cheryl Cole, Chris Moyles, Kimberley Walsh and Fearne Cotton

Enquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Group Newsroom on its 24-hour number: 020 7356 5369. From outside the UK dial + 44 20 7356 5369. All news releases can be accessed at our web site: http://www.bt.com/newscentre

About BT

BT is one of the worlds leading providers of communications solutions and services, operating in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

In the year ended 31 March 2011, BT Groups revenue was 20,076 million with profit before taxation of 1,717 million.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt

About BT Heritage

BTs commitment to its heritage is published in its Heritage Policy (www.bt.com/heritage) adopted in 2004. BT is the only major company to have made such a public commitment to safeguarding its past and future heritage. The key features of our approach are to maintain historical documents and records within the company, under the management of BT Archives (www.bt.com/archives), and to promote access to our physical artefacts online and at museums across the UK through BT's Connected Earth initiative (www.connected-earth.com).

Descriptions of BTs archives can be searched at www.bt.com/archivesonline and historical images and films can be seen at www.bt.com/archives-telefocus, including the telecommunications research records and GPO Film Unit collections both awarded UK UNESCO Memory of the World status, 2011 www.unesco.org.uk/ukregister.

Sam Ireland, Business Support Manager

BT Newsroom

Tel: 020 7356 2830

Mob: 07739 925055

Email: sam.ireland@bt.com

Web: www.bt.com

((M2 Communications disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com)).