In 1985, the Isle of Man Government announced that it would award a 20-year licence to operate the telephone system in a tender process.

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.

[6] On 9 May 2019 private equity investor Basalt Investment Partners completed their acquisition of Manx Telecom.

[4][5] Manx Telecom operates fixed line and mobile networks, and data centres on the Isle of Man.

[7] The mobile phone network operated by Manx Telecom had been used by O2 as an environment for developing and testing new products and services prior to wider rollout.