Manx Telecom

Manx Telecom (Chellinsh Vannin) is the primary telecommunications provider in the Isle of Man. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telefónica O2.

The company has been chaired by local politician Walter Gilbey since its inception.

History

Historically, the telephone system on the Isle of Man had been run as a monopoly by the British General Post Office, and later British Telecommunications, and operated as part of the Liverpool telephone district.

In 1985 the Manx Government announced that it would award a 20-year licence to operate the telephone system in a tender process. As part of this process, in 1986 British Telecom created a Manx-registered subsidiary company, Manx Telecom, to bid for the tender. It was believed that a local identity and management would be more politically acceptable in the tendering process as they competed with Cable & Wireless to win the licence.

Manx Telecom won the tender, and commenced operations under the new identity from 1 January 1987.

On 17 November 2001, Manx Telecom became part of mmO₂ following the demerger of BT Wireless's operations from BT Group.

Operations

Manx Telecom includes two divisions: a mobile division; and a fixed line assets which constituted the first landline operations of Telefónica O₂. To that end, Manx Telecom has since invested over £50 million in telecommunications infrastructure on the island, and is committed to a further £30 million investment over the next three years.

The cell-phone network operated by Manx Telecom has been used by O₂ as an environment for developing and testing new products and services prior to wider rollout. In December 2001, the company became the first telecommunications operator in Europe to launch a live 3G network. In November 2005, the company became the first in Europe to offer its customers an HSDPA (3.5G) service.