2 letter co.uk domain names

I'm confused

[rpking]

I have two main points:

1) Why was it decided that .com,.net and .org address could have a minimum of 2 letters, whereas co.uk have to have at least 3? (it doesn't affect me at all, I'm just interested)

2) How come British Telecom own and use the domain name bt.co.uk? How is this possible?

[theperlyking]

You can have a two letter .co.uk if its a letter and a number.

I know its silly :)

[bhartzer]

What about a one-character or two-character domain name for co.uk such as www.3.co.uk or www.a.co.uk? Is that possible?

[TallTroll]

From Nominets rules for the .uk namespace (found in full here [nominet.net]), the relevant section is:

3.4 Some existing names would be rejected under the current rules. Similarly, if the rules are changed in the future, some names approved under one set of rules might be rejected under the changed rules. No rule change will ever affect the status of a name which has been approved before the change unless sound technical reasons require this.

I think that answers the questions, more or less