Major Broadband Outage Hits ISP Manx Telecom on Isle of Man UPDATE

Thousands of customers of Manx Telecom on the Isle of Man (British Crown Dependency) have been left without broadband access for two long days after the provider suffered a major outage, although worryingly the provider has not yet been able to identify the problem.

The BBC reports that the problem started on Monday and an attempt to fix it last night using a hardware upgrade was “unsuccessful“. Some reports claim that this is affecting 4,000 homes and businesses, but the island’s Communications Commission puts the figure at 7,000 (that’s a lot for an island like this).

The official website merely includes a vague service status update, which merely confirms that the provider is “aware of an issue affecting broadband access in multiple areas of the Island” and notes that their “engineers are currently investigating.” Oddly, the latest update on their Facebook page is much more detailed (why not put that on your service status page too Manx?).

Customers of other internet service providers which use this network are also being affected by the problem.

Manx Telecom Statement – Wednesday 2pm

Manx Telecom confirms the issue with loss of broadband services in some parts of the island is ongoing. Engineers are working hard to resolve the problem and we are receiving guidance from our partners Nokia in establishing the root cause and the fix that can be applied.

We are aware that some customers have been without broadband services for some time and we are currently working on ways that we can support those most in need. This will include measures such as opening up a customer support hub at Manx Telecom headquarters.

More details on this measure will be announced this afternoon. We are grateful to other businesses who are also providing support to affected customers at the present time.

All of this comes after the Isle of Man Government recently agreed to invest £10m with Manx to help extend the coverage of their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network from 25% (10,000) of local premises today to 99% by around the end of 2025 (here). The deal follows last year’s £255.9m acquisition by Basalt Infrastructure Partners II LP (here).

UPDATE 27th August 2020

Service has now been restored and a full investigation is due to be carried out, which doesn’t mean much unless they’re willing to share the outcome in public.