In 1943, the British introduced a ¼ inch 50 ohm coaxial cable, and companies immediately developed many connectors for it.

[2] In 1958, Hazeltine sued Dage Electric Company, a maker of BNC connectors, for infringement on this patent.

[8] The BNC was originally designed for military use and has gained wide acceptance in video and RF applications up to 2 GHz.

BNC connectors are used with miniature-to-subminiature coaxial cable in radio, television, and other radio-frequency electronic equipment.

Consumer electronics devices with RCA connector jacks can be used with BNC-only commercial video equipment by inserting an adapter.

Digital recording equipment uses the connection for synchronization of various components via the transmission of word clock timing signals.

[10][failed verification] Wire strippers which strip outer jacket, shield braid, and inner dielectric to the correct lengths in one operation are used.

[11] BNC connectors are most commonly made in 50 and 75 ohm versions, matched for use with cables of the same characteristic impedance.

The 75 ohm types can sometimes be recognized by the reduced or absent dielectric in the mating ends but this is by no means reliable.

There was a proposal in the early 1970s for the dielectric material to be coloured red in 75 ohm connectors, and while this is occasionally implemented, it did not become standard.

[7][failed verification] The SHV connector is a high-voltage BNC variant that uses this reverse polarity configuration.

While retaining the electrical characteristics of the original specification, they have smaller footprints giving a higher packing density on circuit boards and equipment backplanes.

BNC tools are usually light weight, made of stainless steel, and have screw driver type plastic handle grips for applying torque.

BNC tools facilitate access and minimize the risk of accidentally disconnecting nearby connectors.

United States military standard MIL-PRF-39012 entitled Connectors, Coaxial, Radio Frequency, General Specification for (formerly MIL-C-39012) covers the general requirements and tests for radio frequency connectors used with flexible cables and certain other types of coaxial transmission lines in military, aerospace, and spaceflight applications.

Triaxial (also known as triax) connectors are a variant on BNC that carry a signal and guard as well as ground conductor.

MHV connectors are easily mistaken for BNC type, and can be made to mate with them by brute force.