A British collector has persuaded communications giant Vodafone to sponsor the world’s largest cellphone museum, presenting his more than 2,000 devices online to teach children about the technology’s history.
The five-year sponsorship deal for the Mobile Phone Museum is the brainchild of Ben Wood, an industry veteran who started collecting the devices from more than 200 manufacturers more than 25 years ago.
“When the online museum launches later this year, we want it to be a rich learning resource and a way to inspire young people to go on to create incredible mobile innovations of their own in the future,” Mr. Wood said.
With the oldest phone in his collection dating from 1984, Mr. Wood suggested most of the devices will qualify as artifacts for younger generations who weren’t alive to see mobile technology develop.
Max Taylor, Vodafone’s U.K. consumer director, added: “More than 35 years ago, Vodafone made the U.K.’s first mobile phone call on the Vodafone Transportable VT1, a handset which was the size of a car battery and weighed even more.”
A former Vodafone employee who started working for the company out of college in 1994, Mr. Wood has applied to the Charity Commission for England and Wales to seek government recognition of his website as a charitable museum foundation under British law.
The museum officially opens online on Nov. 23.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.