News Articles

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Vodafone celebrates the 30th anniversary of its (misspelled) name

This weekend marks 30 years since Racal Electronics revealed the name of its new mobile phone service as ‘Vodafone’.

The name was announced at a press conference in London on 22nd March 1984, although it wasn’t until 1991 that Vodafone demerged from Racal and became a separate company.

According to the original news release, “A subscriber to the Racal Vodafone service travelling by car between London and Edinburgh or Exeter, for instance, will be able to make or receive national and international telephone calls with ease throughout the entire journey - and on leaving the vehicle still use the portable Vodafone to remain constantly in touch anywhere and at any time day or night.”

Vodafone’s name was created by the company working with advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. It’s inspired by the words ‘voice’, ‘data’ and ‘phone’, although the ad agency’s idea of using ‘fone’ was originally rejected by the company’s first CEO Sir Gerry Whent.

There are currently around 419 million customers connected to Vodafone or its partner networks.

Print
Author: The Fonecast
0 Comments
Rate this article:
No rating

Categories: Networks and operators, NewsNumber of views: 9120

Tags: vodafone voice data racal

Leave a comment

This form collects your name, email, IP address and content so that we can keep track of the comments placed on the website. For more info check our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use where you will get more info on where, how and why we store your data.
Add comment

Follow thefonecast.com

Twitter @TheFonecast RSS podcast feed
Find us on Facebook Subscribe free via iTunes

Archive Calendar

«March 2024»
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
26272829123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
1234567

Archive

Terms Of Use | Privacy Statement