With all eyes on Lord Carter's
Digital Britain report, it is easy to forget how much more
advanced the broadband network infrastructure is elsewhere.
The Isle of Man is an offshore tax haven one hour's flight from
the city of London, and arguably has the best broadband and mobile
network across the UK and the British Isles. Just 34 miles long
with a population of about 80,000, the Isle of Man is smaller than
many UK local authorities.
Broadband on the Isle of Man has powered the island's economy,
prompting the growth of e-gaming and disaster recovery
businesses.
"The political endorsement is there to drive eBusiness," says
Tim Craine, director of eBusiness in the Treasury department of the
Isle of Man Government. He has a £1m a year budget to market
e-business on the island.
"The Isle of Man is serious about growing our e-business and IT
sectors. For the size of the island we have a disproportionate
amount of investment."
The island's telecommunications firm, Manx Telecom, is
two-thirds of its way through a network upgrade called Next
Generation Network (NGN), equivalent to BT's 21CN programme.
Under the project Manx Telecom will replace legacy fixed, mobile
and broadband networks with a converged network infrastructure.
By the end of the summer, all households on the island will have
broadband, says Chris Hall, managing director of Manx Telecom.
Manx Telecom will offer a minimum broadband service of 5.6Mbps
and mobile data access of 3.6Mbps. iPhone and Blackberry smartphone
users will be able to take advantage of the boost in mobile
bandwidth, which could see the growth in mobile e-gaming on the
island.
Small businesses will benefit from VoIP Centrix technology,
which means they no longer require complex PBX and network
equipment onsite for telephony. "All the intelligence for VoIP is
handled at Manx Telecom," says Cranes.
The Isle of Man's Department of Trade and Industry has joined up
with Venda, which supplies ecommerce systems to major high street
retailers such as Monsoon, to deliver what it sees as a
cost-effective websites for retailers on the island.
"Retail is suffering on the island so we have launched a
campaign to get retailers online," says Lisa Underwood, e-gaming
development manager at the DTI. "Residents will be able to shop
online [for local goods] and have then delivered by the post office
the same day."
The Isle of Man's small size and small population means such
services can be rolled out quickly. What the Isle of Man has to
offer in terms of e-commerce and broadband cannot easily be
replicated across the UK. But the Isle of Man does illustrate how
local government can work with local businesses to deliver
compelling broadband services to the local community.