The Ford Motor company founded the firm in 1991 to provide mobile communications products to Ford customers and Ford dealers, trading under the name Ford Cellular Systems.
The business was sold in 1997 via a management buy-out and Cellular Operations Limited was formed, with BT Cellnet acquiring a 40 per cent share.
This in turn was acquired in 2000 by Cellular Operations Ltd now a private, independent company employing more than 500 people in Swindon.
According to company chairman Ric Lee, the decision to base the company's headquarters in Swindon was made because: "Swindon and the M4 corridor are Britain's answer to California's Silicon Valley."
He added: "As Swindon grew in importance as a centre for hi-tech excellence in the region, we realised that if we were to grow our business, we'd need a young, energetic, educated and technically literate workforce to help us meet our objectives."
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