Sustainability and Social Impact Report 2026
Sustainability and Social Impact Report 2026
Foreword
Nicki Lyons, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, VodafoneThree
The Vodafone and Three merger may have been finalised in June 2025, but the work to get to that point started years before. As a result, we’ve had a lot of time to think about what we want VodafoneThree to stand for, as well as why, when and how we want to show up.
While our mission as a company is to build the UK’s best network, our purpose – to connect every community – is the human part of what we do: the connective tissue that holds our organisation together. Building the UK’s best network will not be delivered by infrastructure alone, but by the brilliance, dedication and diversity of our people.
How we deliver on this purpose will ultimately define who we are as a brand. Are we simply another company you buy from because we offer some of what you want? Or are we a prominent, useful addition to your life that is helping to move you, and the nation, forward?
To be the latter, it’s important that our approach to purpose starts with a clear understanding of the environment that we operate in.
Today, connectivity is fundamental for participating in modern society.
As of 2025, the UK lagged behind all 27 EU countries for 5G download speeds, causing millions to potentially lose out on the benefits of a truly world-leading mobile network.1
It’s a situation that has left many with anger – or, even worse, apathy – towards the UK telecoms industry.
Over time, experiences like this eat away at the relationship between people and technology. A relationship that our business, and many others in the UK, are built upon.
That’s why we believe this relationship needs a reset.
Fundamentally, technology holds an amazing ability to bring people closer together. It’s created access in a way that we very much take for granted today.
And, in the process, it’s massively transformed our lives. However, these opportunities come with potential obstacles attached.
Access to technology
is one. Technology has advanced at such a pace that having a device and being connected is now a basic requirement for participating in society. Fortunately, a bigger, better network can help ensure nobody is left behind.
That’s not to say VodafoneThree has all the answers – far from it. What we do have, however, is the drive to build a more resilient network that can make being safe, secure and sustainable a simpler task for every single person in the UK.
And tracking that journey starts here.
VodafoneThree’s inaugural Sustainability and Social Impact Report is an opportunity to share progress on the actions we’re taking, and how we plan to build on that work over the coming years.
Across the next 50 pages, we will: set out these actions in full; show why they will improve the nation’s connectivity; and explain how, collectively, this can help tackle some of the most pressing social and environmental challenges facing the UK.
Just as importantly, however, we will also show where we, and the industry at large, may still have work to do. After all, reporting isn’t about vanity, it’s about accountability – whether that’s for equal connectivity, safety and security or environmental impact.
And helping us deliver all of this is our new everyone connected sustainability and social impact strategy.
While the name may feel familiar, the following pages will show how this marks a whole new chapter for VodafoneThree and the UK telecoms industry more widely, as we work to connect every community by building the UK’s best network.
Nicki Lyons
Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, VodafoneThree