Vodafone UK

Mobile Network

In 1981, Racal Electronics Group won its bid for the private sector UK Cellular licence, and created Racal Telecomms Division. The same year, Racal formed a joint venture with Millicom named 'Racal Vodafone'. Vodafone made the first ever cellular telephone call in the United Kingdom on 1 January 1985, from St Katharine Docks to Newbury, and launched the UK's first cellular network later that year. 'Vodapage' was launched two years later, providing 80% of the United Kingdom's population with a paging service.

Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics in 1991, becoming Vodafone Group, and introduced the country's first GSM mobile phone network the same year. The company launched 'Vodata' in 1994, providing digital data, fax and a text messaging service. Vodafone also began working with Globalstar to develop and launch a satellite to provide a satellite phone service.

On 5 January 1999, Vodafone UK connected its 5 millionth customer.

The first 3G voice call in the UK was made in 2001 on the Vodafone UK network, with an initial network of 30 base stations in the Thames Valley. In 2003, Vodafone introduced the 'Speaking Phone', a phone for blind & visually impaired users. Vodafone Mobile Connect 3G was launched in 2005, a data card that uses the network's 3G capabilities to connect laptop users to the internet.

Vodafone UK won Mobile Retailer’s 'National Retailer of the Year' in 2005 and was awarded 'Best Network' in the 2010 Mobile News and Mobile Awards.

In May 2011, Vodafone and JustGiving launched 'JustTextGiving', which allows mobile phone user to donate between £1 and £10 to a registered charity using a SMS message, which is paid for by the donor through reverse SMS billing. Vodafone invested £5 million to ensure that charities do not incur any set-up costs, or commissions deducted from donations, ensuring that they receive 100% of donations and Gift Aid.

Vodafone and O2 signed a deal in June 2012 which will see the two companies 'pool' their network technology, creating a single national grid of 18,500 transmitter sites. Both networks will continue to carry their own independent mobile spectrum.

On 20 February 2013, Ofcom announced that Vodafone had been awarded spectrum in the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands for 4G LTE coverage, bidding around £790 million for the spectrum. The service became available to customers in London on 29 August, and will expand to a further twelve cities by the end of 2013.

Fixed Network

On 1 April 2012, Vodafone agreed a takeover of Cable & Wireless Worldwide at a cost of just over £1 billion. The acquisition gave Vodafone access to its own fixed line network, in addition to the already established mobile network, allowing the company to begin work on launching a variety of fixed line services to Enterprise customers in addition to the ex-CWW customers which it acquired during the initial takeover.

Following the acquisition of CWW, Vodafone began working on a consumer Broadband and TV proposition, utilising its fibre network. Vodafone launched its broadband offering to the UK public on 12 October 2015. Work is ongoing for the launch of Vodafone's UK TV service, which the company originally planned to launch before the spring of 2016, however has since delayed to a later date.

Radio frequency summary

Spectrum capacity on the Vodafone UK 4G network

Vodafone LTE 1800MHz and 2100MHz is only available in some areas, having been refarmed from 2G (1800MHz) and 3G (2100MHz).

Stores

Vodafone operates a retail estate, with more than 480 stores located across the UK that sell Home & Business landline & broadband, mobile phone handsets, Vodafone contracts & SIM offers.

A 'Tech Team' section (similar to Apple's Genius Bar) was rolled out in November 2011 to Vodafone 'Elite' status Stores in cities & large towns, offering free advice to all customers of the mobile network. Vodafone also introduced the 'RED Box' to its stores at the same time, which allows phone users to transfer contents between handsets.

Vodafone VIP

Beginning in 2010, Vodafone UK operated a 'VIP' reward scheme as part of a partnership with Live Nation, in which customers could access tickets 48 hours before release for major UK events including T in the Park, Isle of Wight Festival, Reading & Leeds festival, London Fashion Week and the British Grand Prix. Some of the music festivals involved in the scheme had their own 'Vodafone VIP' areas, available to customers by winning certain competitions. In May 2013, the Vodafone VIP Mobile Application developed by Invitation Digital was launched on both iPhone and Android platforms. In January 2014, Vodafone announced the closure of Vodafone VIP with immediate effect.

Freebee Rewardz

Vodafone UK launched a loyalty scheme named ' Freebee Rewardz' in late 2011, accompanied by a £3million marketing campaign featuring two CGI bees named Jack and Mike voiced by Dan Antopolski and Karl Theobald. Each time a pay-as-you-go customer tops-up their balance, they are given the chance to either enter for an instant reward (such as a discount on a film from Blockbuster, or free credit toward their balance) or to collect 'Pointz' that can be added to their account towards a bigger prize. In May 2015 Rewardz were renamed Rewards to reflect marketing changes

Slogans

Vodafone used the slogan 'How are you?' in the UK between 2003 and 2006, but briefly switched in 2007 to "Make the Most of Now". They have now switched to international 'Power to you' branding.

Data charges

Vodafone UK came under criticism in June 2011 after they scrapped their fair-use policy on data charges, meaning those without monthly allowances would pay 50p for every 10MB of data used.

Loss of network

A break-in at the Vodafone exchange centre in Basingstoke on 28 February 2011 left several hundreds of thousands of customers in the west of London without network access, after burglars stole computer equipment and damaged network hardware.