[10][11][12] 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.

Due to concerns of the Government of 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.

According to the UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade, "the bid submitted by Racal-Millicom Ltd … provided the best prospect for early national coverage by cellular radio.

[17] 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.

[41] The acquired operations formed the nucleus of a new Unified Communications and Collaboration practice within its subsidiary Vodafone Global Enterprise,[41] which was to focus on implementing strategies in cloud computing, and strengthen its professional services offering.

[46][47] 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.

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.

[51] In November 2024, the CMA provisionally concluded that the Vodafone and Three Merger could go ahead, if both companies made price promises for consumers and committed to boosting the UK's 5G rollout.

[53] In November 2024, Vodafone Group announced plans to sell its remaining 3.1% stake in Indus Towers to Bharti Airtel for approximately $166 million (13.8 billion Indian rupees).

Despite concerns about potential price hikes, the CMA's approval was conditional on significant investments in 5G infrastructure and legally binding commitments to improve services.

[70] 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 a majority holding, despite disputes by local trade unions.

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.

The deal would enable Vodafone to move its Indian subsidiary off its balance sheet, cutting the British group's net debt by the equivalent of almost $8.25 billion.

[118][119] The acquisition of Mannesmann AG, completed on 12 April 2000, created subsidiaries in Germany and Italy, and increased the Group's indirect holding in SFR.

[140] On 22 February 2006, the company announced that it was extending its footprint to Bulgaria with the signing of Partner Network Agreement with Mobiltel, which is part of the mobilkom Austria group.

[143] On 24 July 2006, the respected head of Vodafone Europe, Bill Morrow, quit unexpectedly,[144] and on 25 August 2006, the company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Belgium's Proximus for €2 billion.

[147] In December 2006, the Company completed the acquisition of Aspective, an enterprise applications systems integrator in the UK, signalling Vodafone's intent to grow a significant presence and revenues in the information and communication technologies (ICT) marketplace.

In December 2004, Vodafone Australia agreed to deploy high-speed MPLS backbone network built by Lucent Worldwide Services using Juniper hardware.

[210] The acquired operations formed the nucleus of a new Unified Communications and Collaboration practice within VGE,[41] working on cloud computing and professional services.

[226] In November 2009, Vodafone announced the creation of a new business unit focused on the emerging market (the application of mobile communications and network technologies to healthcare).

[228] The Vodafone Foundation is a recognised charity which supports and initiates projects which use mobile technology to benefit the vulnerable, using the slogan "Connecting for Good".

[231] Vodafone's sponsorships include: Sir Gerald Whent, at that time an Executive with Racal Electronics plc, was responsible for the bid for a UK Cellular Network licence.

[240] Arun Sarin was the driving force behind the company's move into emerging markets such as Asia and Africa, through the purchases such as that of Turkish operator Telsim, and a majority stake in Hutchison Essar in India.

[245] In 2011, Private Eye magazine and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism alleged that Vodafone's Swiss branches were run by a single part-time bookkeeper.

[251] On 28 January 2011, Vodafone complied with Egyptian government instructions to suspend Internet service "in selected areas" during a period of anti-Mubarak protests.

"[252] Vodafone also received public and media criticism for allowing the authorities to send mass pro-government messages via SMS over their network during the protests.

[257][258] In Australia, particularly towards the end of 2010, Vodafone was heavily criticised due to allegations of poor customer service and severe technical inadequacies, which earned them their nickname "Vodafail" – a website of the same name still exists.

[263] In October 2017, Citizens Advice undertook a mystery shopping exercise which found that Vodafone, along with EE and Three, were not reducing customers' bills after fixed deals finished which meant that they were paying an extra £22 a month on average.

[264] In June 2014, Vodafone revealed information about their and other telecommunication operators' 'direct access systems', content data and metadata interception programmes globally.

[265] In March 2019, the Indian investigation agency CBI filed a plea in the Supreme Court of India against Vodafone and Airtel alleging non cooperation in the Saradha chitfund scam.