UK’s first commercial mobile call

On January 1st, 1985, the beloved comedian Ernie Wise, charmingly dressed in Dickensian attire, made a memorable entrance on a beautiful 19th-century Mail Coach at Marble Quay. He dialled the very first commercial mobile phone call to Sir Ernest Harrison at Vodafone headquarters in Newbury. While history hasn’t captured Ernie's exact words, what we do know is that for the first nine days of 1985, Vodafone proudly held the distinction of being the sole mobile network in the UK.