Vodafone
British multinational telecommunications company
Vodafone Group plc () 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 August 2026, Vodafone operates networks in 17 countries, with partner networks in 42 further countries.
Vodafone has 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).
Name
The name Vodafone comes from voice data fone (the latter a sensational spelling of "phone"), chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones".
History
Racal Telecom: 1980 to 1991
In 1980, Ernest Harrison, then chairman of Racal Electronics Plc – 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.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Vodafone” as british multinational telecommunications company. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as british multinational telecommunications company. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q122141. VIAF identifies the subject as 149178063. The Library of Congress control number is nb2005014777. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2026, 1980 and 1991.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Vodafone”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Vodafone primary sources, Vodafone archive and Vodafone research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Vodafone”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Vodafone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.