Mobile industry veterans Ben Wood and Matt Chatterley have launched an online mobile phone museum with over 2,000 different handsets from 200 manufacturers.

The Mobile Phone Museum operates as a charitable company and is being sponsored by Vodafone for the next five years. Its founders hope it will eventually offer real-world exhibits of its devices as well as an online gallery, including a London exhibition in 2025 to celebrate 40 years of UK mobile phones.

It maps out the evolution of mobile phones since 1984, covering over 35 years of mobile history. Ben and Matt have used their industry connections to add rare devices to the collection, although there are a number of iconic handsets that have eluded them - from Bang & Olufsen's Serene (produced in partnership with Samsung) to a limited-edition Huawei Enjoy 7 Plus with KFC branding.

Max Taylor, Vodafone's UK Consumer Director, said “More than 35 years ago, Vodafone made the UK’s first mobile phone call on the Vodafone Transportable VT1, a handset which was the size of a car battery and weighed even more. Looking back at those early devices and everything which came later tells a fascinating story, not only of the technology itself and how it has evolved, but also of how we communicate."

“We hope that by supporting Ben and Matt’s unique museum collection – the most comprehensive collection anywhere in the world – we’ll be able to help people reminisce about the devices they’ve had over the years, and get excited about what devices might be able to do for them in the future.”

Alongside Vodafone's sponsorship, support for the the project has also come from Genuine Solutions, CCS Insight, Code8, Toman Design and Phase Two Design.