Vodafone is using the Wimbledon tennis championships to promote its digital inclusion initiative. As the tournament’s official connectivity partner.
The network has launched a “Rally Tally” challenge and will donate up to 25,000 mobile connections based on the average rally count recorded by IBM across the show courts.
The initiative is part of Vodafone’s Everyone Connected programme, which aims to provide digital access to four million people and businesses in the UK by the end of 2025. Vodafone says it has already reached 3.5 million through a combination of donated connectivity, discounted tariffs, and digital skills training.
The company estimates that 10.6 million people in the UK still lack adequate digital access.
New research shows that over a third of people surveyed take part in rapid-fire group chats about sport on a daily basis, with sports-related conversations ranking just behind family catch-ups and weekend planning as the most active group chat topics. Vodafone cites exchanges of up to 74 messages during a single match.
The findings indicate that more than half of sports fans (52%) rely on group chats to stay updated, while one in five (20%) use dedicated threads solely for sporting discussions. Topics typically include umpire decisions, player performances, and match points.
Vodafone’s analysis also shows that messaging often forms part of the build-up to matches, with 30% of fans setting up chats in advance—and some conversations continuing for years.
Millennials tend to juggle several chats on the same topic; Gen Z leads in volume, averaging 108 messages per “rally”; while Gen X prefers shorter exchanges, with fewer emojis and less media content.
The campaign is part of Vodafone’s strategy of using major events to promote its connectivity agenda and position mobile access as a basic utility.
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