Vodafone UK

Vodafone Limited, trading as Vodafone UK, is a British telecommunications company, owned since May 2025 by VodafoneThree, a subsidiary of Vodafone Group. The country's first cellular phone call was made on the Vodafone network in 1985, and the world's first SMS text message in 1992. Vodafone is the third-largest mobile network operator in the United Kingdom, with 18.3 million subscribers as of February 2025, after O2 and EE, and followed by sister company Three. In June 2023, it was announced that subject to regulatory approval, Vodafone UK and Three UK would merge to create Britain's biggest mobile network. The merger was approved by the Competition and Markets Authority in December 2024, and completed in May 2025, with the company becoming part of VodafoneThree. Within six months of the merger, customers were expected to receive access to a shared Vodafone-Three network.