12 Jul 2011Isle of Man Broadband Overview

The Isle of Man became one of the first ten countries in the world with ADSL access, when the incumbent Manx Telecom enabled the Douglas exchange to offer business broadband services in March 2000. By June 2001 both business and residential ADSL services had been rolled out to Ramsey, Castletown, Peel, Port Erin and Marown exchanges, and by June 2003 all eleven exchanges on the Island had been ADSL-enabled.

In 2003, the Isle of Man Government published its broadband strategy which set out a number of strategic objectives. These include encouraging further reduction in the cost of broadband infrastructure and services in order to accelerate its uptake; ensuring the level of broadband penetration in the Isle of Man is ahead of the level of broadband penetration in the UK and other comparable jurisdictions; and encouraging an environment where a variety of technologies and suppliers of broadband infrastructure and new, diverse services are active in the market.

Despite Manx Telecom enjoying a dominant position on the Island, the competitive dynamics changed in July 2008. The Island’s regulator changed the terms of the licence of Cable and Wireless Isle of Man Ltd to allow it to offer new fixed services under its new brand subsidiary ‘Sure’ in addition to its mobile services. This decision has intensified competition in the Island’s telecommunications sector and increased the choice for end users.

Further competition is likely to ensue after the switch to digital broadcasting. The Isle of Man is the first nation in the British Isles to switch off analogue terrestrial TV transmissions in June 2009. This will result in the availability of spectrum for new services such as more broadcasting, mobile broadband and other possible applications.

Recent significant investment in the telecoms infrastructure, which enabled the launch of the Next Generation Network (NGN) and the roll-out of ADSL2+ technology, has ensured that the Island has state of the art infrastructure. Furthermore, despite its low population density and difficult topography the Isle of Man has nearly 100 per cent broadband coverage.