Vodafone Portugal – Comunicações Pessoais, S.A., a full subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc, is the second mobile operator in Portugal, both chronologically and in market share (34% in 2006). Its competitors are NOS and MEO.
History
As Telecel
Vodafone Portugal was founded in 1991 as Telecel, Comunicações Pessoais, S.A. (Telecel). In June 1991, Telecel and TMN applied for licences to operate GSM mobile networks in Portugal, and Telecel won the bid for the second GSM network in October that year.
The network went live on 18 October 1992.
In 1996, the "pre-paid" concept was introduced with the launch of the tariff plan Vitamina. Telecel also held a paging license and was leader in the 4-player paging business, using the brand Telechamada.
In January 2000, the indirect access fixed-line telephone service was launched, using Portugal Telecom's infrastructures and the 1091 prefix. It used the brands toq 1091 (for home customers; now discontinued in favour of Vodafone at Home/Vodafone Casa) and Voz Pri (for business customers; still used as part of the business solutions).
In May of the same year, Telecel entered the Internet service provider