Keeping you connected is what we're here for
We are constantly investing in our network right across the UK, all year round – to make sure you're connected to the people and things you love, wherever you are. And we've got a history of firsts – we made the UK’s first mobile call, sent the first text message, and supported the nation’s first holographic 5G call.
We do it for you – so you can live your life connected – now and tomorrow. That's why we’ve been voted the UK’s best network.
First mobile call
Michael Harrison calls his dad – our first ever chairperson Sir Ernest Harrison – at 12:01am on 1 January 1985. This makes the history books as the UK’s first ever mobile phone call.
First text message
One of our test engineers, Neil Papworth, sends his colleague the UK’s first text message on Christmas Eve – it said, ‘Merry Christmas.’
First 3G call
The UK’s first 3G voice call is made in the Thames Valley using our network of 30 radio base stations.
5G has landed
It’s a #5Gamechanger
We've switched on 5G, and it's making its way around the UK. Our 5G will unlock a world of exciting opportunities like:
Vodafone 5G is here - Ready?
Faster mobile speeds than you’ve ever experienced before.
Use maps and play games that keep up with you. Smooth move, 5G.
At a festival? Lose yourself in the music without losing connection.
That means more connected homes, cars, cities and healthcare.
Providing increased 4G coverage, indoors and out
We work hard to continuously increase and improve our coverage across the UK. We do it in a variety of ways: physically building new masts that provide coverage to geographical and population areas that we didn’t cover before; deploying new masts in areas we already cover, to increase the capacity of our network; adding more spectrum or new technologies such as 4G to existing masts; and reducing downtime on our network by fixing faults and outages more quickly.
4G in more places
In September 2018, our internal tools showed our 4G 1Mbps outdoor population coverage at 99%. But what does that really mean for you?
Well, not only does it show that we’re increasing coverage up and down the country, we’re also working hard to increase coverage in places of interest. Places like Gatwick Airport, where we’ve built a complete coverage solution to make it the fastest 4G airport in the UK. So now you’ll have up to 200Mbps download speeds throughout the entire airport – including the departure gates.
Doubling the amount of 4G+ available
We've been re-farming 3G to 4G across the UK. The result? We’ve doubled 4G capacity from 2 lanes to 4 lanes and increased 4G capacity by 150%, so you can enjoy download speeds of up to 300Mbps.
We’ve been doing this up and down the country, including (but by no means limited to) cities like London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff, Nottingham and Bristol.
Best in tests in several major cities
Vodafone is the UK’s Best in Test for voice in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester, Best in Test for data in Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow and Manchester and is the most reliable network based on crowdsourcing assessed by P3.
P3’s annual testing reflects the results of network performance, assessed independently by P3 across October and December 2018, where four major operators were tested in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Coverage may vary.
To discover what this means for you, please read the full P3 report breakdown [PDF: 2.3MB]
