41-645: Vodafone Group Plc ( / ˈ v oʊ d ə f oʊ n / ) is a British multinational telecommunications company . Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire , England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. As of October 2024, Vodafone owns and operates networks in 16 countries, with partner networks in 46 further countries. Its Vodafone Global Enterprise division provides telecommunications and IT services to corporate clients in 150 countries. Vodafone has
82-769: A grammar school in Kennington . His father, who had served in the Royal Navy, died when he was at school. He is one of four brothers (Rod, Chris, Jeremy and Pete). He first worked for the National Westminster Bank in 1971 as a management trainee, then as a computer services manager at Schroders . In 1979 he became the managing director of Baric, a company owned by ICL and Barclays . In 1985 Gent joined Racal Electronics' Vodafone subsidiary as managing director of British operations as Vodafone prepared to launch its retail mobile phone operations. Gent
123-473: A 10% stake, strong investor demand led Vodafone to nearly double the sale. Bharti Airtel , increased its stake in Indus to about 49% by purchasing around 1% of the shares. Vodafone sold 484.7 million shares at 310-341 rupees each, generating 153 billion rupees. The sale reduced Vodafone's stake in Indus from 21.5% to 3.1%. Following a period of worldwide expansion which began in 1999, in the 2010s Vodafone entered
164-589: A 35% share of Mannesmann , owner of the largest German mobile network. To gain antitrust approval for the merger, Vodafone sold its 17.2% stake in Mannesmann's German competitor, E-Plus . On 21 September 1999, Vodafone agreed to merge its US wireless assets with those of Bell Atlantic Corp to form Verizon . The merger was completed on 4 April 2000, just a few months prior to Bell Atlantic's merger with GTE to form Verizon Communications . In November 1999, Vodafone made an unsolicited bid for Mannesmann, which
205-626: A majority holding, despite disputes by local trade unions. In April 2011, Vodacom rebranded with the Vodafone logo. On 29 December 2003, Vodafone signed a Partner Network Agreement with Kuwait's MTC group. The agreement involved co-operation in Bahrain and the branding of the network as MTC-Vodafone. In November 1998, the Vodafone Egypt network went live under the name Click GSM, and was rebranded to Vodafone in 2002. On 8 November 2006,
246-660: A period of retrenchment and simplification of its operations. On 23 September 2016, Vodafone extended its activities to Cameroon by signing a partnership with Afrimax, a 4G-LTE telecommunications operator in Africa. Vodafone Cameroon Launched a "Youth Program" in the Universities to support and encourage the Cameroonian students. The partnership ceased to operate in September 2017 following the withdrawal of its license by
287-638: A primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index . The company has a secondary listing on the NASDAQ as American depositary receipts (ADRs). The name Vodafone comes from vo ice da ta fone (the latter a sensational spelling of " phone "), chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones". In 1980, Ernest Harrison , then chairman of Racal Electronics Plc –
328-520: A shareholding of 65%. In January 2021, Vodafone obtained a license to establish and operate public telecommunications services in Oman . In September 2021 Vodafone in Oman signed an agreement with Ericsson to deploy, operate and maintain 4G and 5G core and radio access (RAN) greenfield network and an agreement with Netcracker Technology to deploy Netcracker Digital BSS. Vodafone will be the third operator in
369-499: A trade agreement with the Chilean Entel PCS Chile, in which Entel PCS has access to the equipment and international services of Vodafone, and Vodafone will be one of the trademarks of Entel for the wireless business. This step will give the Vodafone brand access to a market of over 15 million people, currently divided between two companies: Telefonica Movistar and Entel PCS. In August 2013, Vodafone has started
410-705: Is a British businessman, He is the former chief executive officer of Vodafone , a British multinational mobile phone company. Until 2015, he served as the non-exec chairman of GlaxoSmithKline , the world's fourth largest pharmaceutical company . According to the Financial Times 15th August 2022, he was fined £80,000 by the FCA for insider trading. Born in 1948 in Bridgemary Hants , Gent was raised in Gosport , Hampshire. He attended Tenison's School , then
451-533: The Premier League team Manchester United F.C. in football from 2000 until the 2005–06 season. In 2007, Vodafone entered into a title sponsorship deal with the McLaren Formula One team (previously Vodafone sponsored Scuderia Ferrari in 2002 until 2006), which traded as "Vodafone McLaren Mercedes" until the sponsorship ended at the end of the 2013 season. On 1 December 2011, it acquired
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#1732783394344492-735: The Reading -based Bluefish Communications Ltd, an ICT consultancy company. The acquired operations formed the nucleus of a new Unified Communications and Collaboration practice within its subsidiary Vodafone Global Enterprise , which was to focus on implementing strategies in cloud computing , and strengthen its professional services offering. In April 2012, Vodafone announced an agreement to acquire Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) for £1.04 billion. The acquisition gave Vodafone access to CWW's fibre network for businesses, enabling it to offer unified communications to enterprises. On 18 June 2012, Cable & Wireless shareholders voted in favour of
533-584: The University of Bath . He received a knighthood for his services to the telecoms industry in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours . He was also appointed as a HonFREng of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2004. In March 2007 Gent called for a referendum on London's hosting of the 2012 Olympics . He was quoted as saying "I cannot see that the long-term economic benefit of hosting the Games outweighs
574-648: The 5G MiFi M1100 in Qatar. It is the first commercially available 5G mobile hotspot in the region. On 28 January 2009, the group announced a partner network agreement with Du , the second-largest operator in the United Arab Emirates. The agreement involved co-operation on international clients, handset procurement, mobile broadband etc. Vodafone's network partner in Canada was Rogers Wireless . but has since changed to Telus On 11 May 2008, Vodafone sealed
615-653: The 80% that it did not already own of Astec Communications, a service provider with 21 stores. In January 1997, Whent retired and Chris Gent took over as CEO. In the same year, Vodafone introduced its Speechmark logo, composed of a quotation mark in a circle, with the Os in the Vodafone logotype representing opening and closing quotation marks and suggesting conversation. On 29 June 1999, Vodafone completed its purchase of American service provider AirTouch and changed its name to Vodafone AirTouch Plc. The merged company commenced trading on 30 June 1999. The acquisition gave Vodafone
656-655: The MVNO operation in Brazil, as a corporative M2M operator. Multinational company Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.132 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 948186110 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:43:14 GMT Chris Gent Sir Christopher Charles Gent HonFREng (born 10 May 1948)
697-632: The Mannesmann board agreed to an increased offer of £112 billion, then the largest corporate merger ever. The EU approved the merger in April 2000 after Vodafone agreed to divest the 'Orange' brand, which was acquired in May 2000 by France Télécom . On 28 July 2000, the Company reverted to its former name, Vodafone Group Plc. On 17 December 2001, Vodafone introduced the concept of "Partner Networks", by signing TDC Mobil of Denmark. The new concept involved
738-636: The Racal Strategic Radio Ltd subsidiary was established. Jan Stenbeck , head of a growing Swedish conglomerate, set up an American company, Millicom Inc , and approached Gerry Whent in July 1982 about bidding jointly for the UK's second cellular radio licence. The two struck a deal giving Racal 60% of the new company, Racal-Millicom Ltd, and Millicom 40%. Due to concerns of the Government of
779-580: The Sultanate of Oman. In December 2007, a Vodafone Group-led consortium was awarded the second mobile phone licence in Qatar under the name "Vodafone Qatar". Vodafone Qatar is located at QSTP, the Qatar Science & Technology Park . Commercial operations officially began on 1 March 2009. In February 2018 Vodafone Europe agreed to sell their stake in the Qatar joint venture. On 25 November 2019, Vodafone in collaboration with Inseego Corp. introduced
820-669: The UK's largest manufacturer of military radios – negotiated a deal with Lord Weinstock of the UK General Electric Company (GEC), which gave Racal access to some of GEC's battlefield radio technology. Harrison directed the head of Racal's military radio division, Gerry Whent , to explore the use of that technology for civilian purposes. Whent visited a mobile radio factory run by the US company General Electric (unrelated to UK GEC) in Virginia , that same year. In 1981,
861-691: The United Kingdom about foreign ownership, the terms were revised, and in December 1982 the Racal-Millicom partnership was awarded the second UK mobile phone network licence. Final ownership of Racal-Millicom Ltd was 80% Racal, with Millicom holding 15% plus royalties, and the venture firm Hambros Technology Trust holding 5%. According to the UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade , "the bid submitted by Racal-Millicom Ltd … provided
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#1732783394344902-718: The Vodafone offer. On 2 September 2013, Vodafone announced it would be selling its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications for $ US130 billion. With the proceeds from the deal, it announced a £19 billion Project Spring initiative to improve network quality in Europe and emerging markets, such as India . In June 2017, the company took measures to prevent its advertising from appearing within outlets focused on creating and sharing hate speech and fake news. In January 2020, Vodafone confirmed that it has pulled out of Diem Association (known as Libra Association at
943-583: The best prospect for early national coverage by cellular radio." Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985 under the new name of Racal-Vodafone (Holdings) Ltd, with its first office based in the Courtyard in Newbury, Berkshire , and shortly thereafter Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited. The first non-Vodafone employee to make a UK mobile phone call was comedian Ernie Wise , from St Katharine Docks , London on 1 January 1985. On 29 December 1986, Racal Electronics issued shares to
984-638: The company announced a deal with Telecom Egypt , resulting in further co-operation in the Egyptian market and increasing its stake in Vodafone Egypt. After the deal, Vodafone Egypt was 55% owned by the group, while the remaining 45% was owned by Telecom Egypt. On 29 January 2020, Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and the Vodafone Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the sale of Vodafone's entire 55 percent stake in Vodafone Egypt to STC. With
1025-435: The compensation committee of the board that authorised the payout for its CEO, Dick Fuld , who received $ 34 million compensation in 2007 and $ 40.5 million in 2006. In August 2022, The Financial Conduct Authority fined Sir Christopher Gent £80,000 for unlawfully disclosing inside information, in his former role as non-executive Chairman of ConvaTec Group Plc. In 2006 Gent was awarded an honorary degree (Doctor of Laws) from
1066-427: The costs and the horrific burden on the taxpayer, particularly London rate-payers. The cost for them is going to be astronomically high." Gent is an avid sports fan and enjoys golf, skiing and tennis. However, his real passion is cricket , having grown up next door to The Oval and he is well known to travel long distances to attend matches. He famously instigated the deal with Airtouch whilst on his mobile phone at
1107-484: The government. On 3 July 2008, Vodafone agreed to acquire a 70% stake in Ghana Telecom for $ 900 million. The acquisition was consummated on 17 August 2008. The same group-led consortium won the second fixed-line licence in Qatar on 15 September 2008. On 15 April 2009, Ghana Telecom, along with its mobile subsidiary OneTouch, was rebranded as Vodafone Ghana . In February 2023, Vodafone Group has concluded
1148-647: The group, and demerge the other 35 per cent to its shareholder. Meanwhile, Vodafone has agreed to make Vodacom its exclusive sub-Saharan Africa investment vehicle, as well as continuing to maintain the visibility of the Vodacom brand. The transaction closed in May/June 2009. On 18 May 2009, Vodacom entered the JSE Limited stock exchange in South Africa after Vodafone increased its stake by 15% to 65% to take
1189-429: The introduction of Vodafone international services to the local market, without the need of investment by Vodafone. The concept would be used to extend the Vodafone brand and services into markets where it did not have stakes in local operators. Vodafone services would be marketed under the dual-brand scheme, where the Vodafone brand is added at the end of the local brand. (i.e., TDC Mobil-Vodafone etc.) Vodafone sponsored
1230-560: The merger was approved, asserting the merger would strengthen competition. In November 2024, the Competition and Markets Authority provisionally concluded that the Vodafone and Three Merger could go ahead – if both companies make price promises for consumers and commit to boosting the UK's 5G rollout. In June 2024, Vodafone Group sold an 18% stake in Indus Towers , raising $ 1.82 billion to reduce its debt. Initially planning to sell
1271-521: The mid-2030s, including a spectrum shift to aid Vodafone's $ 19 billion merger with Three UK, which faced a Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation. The deal, involved selling some of its combined 59% of the best 5G spectrum to Virgin Media O2, aimed to address regulatory concerns about reducing mobile networks from four to three in Britain. Vodafone pledged a £11 billion investment in 5G if
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1312-609: The minority shareholders of Vodafone worth £110 million, and Vodafone became a fully owned brand of Racal. On 26 October 1988, Racal Telecom, majority held by Racal Electronics, went public on the London Stock Exchange with 20% of its stock floated. The successful flotation led to a situation where Racal's stake in Racal Telecom Plc was valued more than the whole of Racal Electronics. Under stock market pressure to realise full value for shareholders, Racal demerged Racal Telecom in 1991. On 16 September 1991, Racal Telecom
1353-696: The sale of its 70% stake in Vodafone Ghana to Telecel Group in a bid to streamline its African portfolio, thus exiting the Ghanaian market. On 24 February 2010, the group signed a partner network agreement with the second-largest operator in Libya, al Madar. On 3 November 2004, the company announced that its South African affiliate Vodacom had agreed to introduce Vodafone's international services, such as Vodafone live! and partner agreements, to its local market. In November 2005, Vodafone announced that it
1394-406: The sale, Vodafone would be exiting the Egyptian market as a telecom operator. Telecom Egypt said that it has no plans to sell its 45% stake. On 21 December 2020, Vodafone announced that had failed to reach an agreement in its discussions with STC regarding the sale of Vodafone's 55% shareholding in Vodafone Egypt. Vodafone sold its shares in Vodafone Egypt to Vodacom in 2022 in which Vodafone has
1435-502: The time), the governing council for the Facebook -created global digital currency initiative. In June 2023, it was announced that Vodafone UK would merge with Three UK ; Vodafone would own 51% of the combined company, and CK Hutchison Holdings 49%. If approved by regulators, the merger will create a group with 27 million mobile customers. On 3 July 2024, Vodafone and Virgin Media O2 announced to extend their network-sharing deal into
1476-463: Was an advocate of the United Kingdom joining the euro . After retiring from Vodafone in July 2003, Gent was awarded the honorary title of company's president for life on his departure as a mark of his achievement in developing the company, until his resignation from that position in March 2006. The title carried no salary, nor any advisory responsibilities, but was a symbolic link to the business. He
1517-413: Was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group Plc, with Gerry Whent as its CEO. In July 1996, Vodafone acquired the two-thirds of Talkland it did not already own for £30.6 million. On 19 November 1996, in a defensive move, Vodafone purchased for £77 million Peoples Phone , a 181-store chain whose customers were overwhelmingly using Vodafone's network. In a similar move the company acquired
1558-611: Was formerly chairman of GlaxoSmithKline , a British multinational pharmaceutical company, joining in June 2004, becoming chairman on 1 January 2005, a position he held until May 2015. From October 2005 to October 2006 he served on the Tax Reform Commission, established by the then Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne MP. Gent was a non-executive director of Lehman Brothers and one of four members of
1599-578: Was in exclusive talks to buy a 15% stake of VenFin in Vodacom Group, reaching agreement the following day. Vodafone and Telkom then had a 50% stake each in Vodacom. Vodafone now owns 57.5% of Vodacom after purchasing a 15% stake from Telkom. On 9 October 2008, the company offered to acquire an additional 15% stake in Vodacom Group from Telkom. The finalised details of the agreement were announced on 6 November 2008. The agreement called for Telkom to sell 15 per cent of its 50 per cent stake in Vodacom to
1640-473: Was rejected. Vodafone's interest in Mannesmann had been increased by the latter's purchase of Orange , the UK mobile operator. Gent would later say Mannesmann's move into the UK broke a "gentleman's agreement" not to compete in each other's home territory. The hostile takeover provoked strong protests in Germany, and a "titanic struggle" which saw Mannesmann resist Vodafone's efforts. However, on 3 February 2000,
1681-456: Was widely credited with transforming Vodafone from a small subsidiary of Racal, a British electronics company, into a global giant, and with engineering Vodafone's 178 billion pound ($ 212 billion) purchase of Germany's Mannesmann in 2000. He became its managing director in January 1985 and its chief executive officer (taking over from Sir Gerald Whent) in January 1997. In 2001, Gent