Vodafone
VT1

The Vodafone VT1, a Vodafone-branded variant of the Mobira Talkman, is a true icon in mobile phone history. It was one of the two launch devices offered by Vodafone in January 1985, the other being the Panasonic-manufactured Vodafone VM1. In August 1983 Vodafone ordered 5,000 Vodafone VT1's from Mobira and 5,000 Vodafone VM1 units from Panasonic. It chose two manufacturers as a means to minimise the risk of not having any phones for launch. This proved to be an astute move as at the time of launch in January 1985 only a handful of evaluation units of the VT1 had been delivered. Luckily several hundred VM1 devices did arrive. The decision to order 10,000 units was considered pretty foolhardy at the time, but Vodafone felt it needed to make a meaningful commitment to get the manufacturers to take them seriously. This was particularly important as the new 1G analogue network technology (TACS) being used by Vodafone was only available in the UK at the time. By the end of 1985, Vodafone had sold 12,000 VT1 mobile phones, which cost £1,475 each (equivalent to approximately £4,500 in 2024). With a car kit, this was bumped up to £1,650. The phone was a Class 2 device which meant it had an output level of 4 watts. It weighed 5.5kg and with a standard battery (which comprised two 6-volt (three amp hour)) gel-cell batteries in series providing a talk time of approximately 45 minutes with a standby time of 8 hours. The video displayed here is a CGI homage to the VT1 created by Vodafone in 2015 to mark the 30th anniversary of the first phone call in the UK.