High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The United Kingdom`s General Post Office (GPO) had a number of telephones that were provided by them for connection to their exchanges. Until 1982 the GPO had a monopoly on the provision of all telephones within the UK, other than in Kingston upon Hull, and so the range was limited. Customers (known within the GPO as "subs", being short for `subscribers`) did not buy their telephones, they were rented from the GPO, together with the house wiring and the wiring connecting the house to the local network at a connection point known as a DP (Distribution Point). The majority of DPs were (and still are) at the top of what are still known in the UK as telegraph poles.