Review of telecoms infrastructure in the Isle of Man and made recommendations for the government to promote economic growth

The problem

• The Department of Economic Development (DED) wanted to ensure that the Isle of Man (IoM) is seen as an attractive destination for all businesses, in support of the government’s policy for economic growth
• Analysys Mason was engaged to review the existing telecoms infrastructure in the IoM and provide recommendations on any issues identified relating to telecoms infrastructure which had implications for economic development

The solution

• As part of our research we consulted over 25 key stakeholders (e.g. the regulator, government bodies, businesses and operators)
• We identified areas of the industry where the IoM was either comparable to or more advanced than its peers (e.g. its fixed and mobile voice and broadband coverage)
• We identified five key opportunities to promote business growth, and one relating to wider policy issues. We highlighted the key issues for each opportunity (see figure below) and made 25 specific recommendations, taking account of the potential impact on economic development. Recommendations included: simplifying the planning permission process ahead of 5G mobile roll-out; encouraging network sharing; and supporting operators to deploy FTTH, initially in greenfield and high-demand areas, then planning a longer-term roll-out for other parts of the island

Figure: Improvement opportunities which we identified

The result

• The government adopted all 25 of our recommendations and different working groups were established to implement them