Vodafone Portugal, originally founded as Telecel in 1991, is a telecommunications company based in Portugal. It is a full subsidiary of the Vodafone Group, a British multinational telecommunications conglomerate. The company was established after winning a bid to operate the second GSM network in Portugal in October 1991, with the network going live in 1992.
The company's initial group of shareholders was led by Portuguese investment bank Banco Espírito Santo, Portuguese conglomerate Amorim, and USA's Pacific Telesis, owner of mobile operator PacTel Cellular. In 1994, PacTel Cellular was spun off as AirTouch, which merged with the Vodafone Group in 1999. This merger made Telecel a minority-owned subsidiary of the Vodafone Group. Over the years, Vodafone Group gradually increased its share in the company, eventually launching a successful tender offer for all outstanding shares in 2003. This led to Vodafone becoming the full owner of the company, which was then renamed Vodafone Portugal.