Manx Telecom Deploy 4G LTE Mobile Broadband Across the Isle of Man

Some years have passed since Manx Telecom‘s first trial of 4G (LTE) based Mobile Broadband technology on the Isle of Man (British Crown Dependency) in 2011 (here) and now they’re planning to make the “superfast” service available to 95% of the Islands population at “no extra cost” (so long as you already have a 4G ready handset).

The upgrade work is set to take place “this summer” and the operator anticipates that their customers can then expect to receive Mobile Broadband speeds that are “up to seven times faster” than their current 3G based services.

David Smith, Manx Telecom’s Marketing Director, said:

“4G for all has always been our goal. We wanted to bring the fantastic benefits of a superfast mobile network to as many Isle of Man consumers and businesses as possible; as soon as possible, and in just a few weeks we’ll do exactly that. Achieving 95% population coverage means that the Isle of Man will be way ahead of 4G availability in the UK.

Our 4G licence commitment is to achieve a minimum of 33% coverage at launch and 95% two years after launch – but we know how much our customers love new technology so we have been working hard to meet our two year target this summer. 4G will not be available to Pay As You Go customers initially, but all our customers will benefit from the improved 2G/3G network.”

Customers can check whether their current handset or tariff is 4G ready by going to the following page: http://www.manxtelecom.com/4g . Manx are also running a trade-in scheme alongside their summer Smartphone sale, which allows users to upgrade their existing 3G handsets to a 4G ready device.

It’s worth noting that Manx also offer some dedicated Mobile Broadband packages, which are priced from £5.99 per month for a 500MB usage allowance and go all the way up to £40.99 if you want 50GB of usage (the cheaper packages require you to pay £35 for a USB Modem but the most expensive ones include it for free).

Meanwhile rival operator Sure anticipates that its network will be available across the island by November 2014.