Vodafone celebrates 30th birthday

Vodafone is celebrating 30 years since it was first launched as a “new portable and mobile public telecommunications service” – marking the start of the mobile phone revolution in Britain.

Now one of the biggest companies in the world, it was originally part of the Racal Electronics Group, which announced the name of its new venture on March 22 1984, after winning a bid for the private sector UK cellular licence.