Almost £265,000 of taxpayers’ funding has been spent on connecting the island to fibre broadband via underground cables rather than telegraph poles.

Manx Telecom’s plans to roll-out ultra-fast broadband have hit a number of planning hurdles.

A series of applications to erect telegraph poles to carry overhead network cables have been rejected by the island’s planning committee.

In a Tynwald question, Glenfaba and Peel MHK Kate Lord-Brennan asked how much government funding to support below ground infrastructure instead of telegraph poles was approved or provided to Manx Telecom.

Enterprise Minister Tim Johnston replied that his department had only provided funding for below ground infrastructure in a limited number of areas.

He said that in 2025 his department paid £264,776 for costs incurred in using below ground infrastructure to deliver fibre past the premises in a number of intervention areas identified in the National Broadband Plan (NBP).

That plan had a target of bringing ultrafast fibre broadband to more than 99% of properties island-wide.

Some £12.5m of government funding was made available to ensure properties in nine intervention zones got high speed broadband access.

In his written reply, Mr Johnston said: ‘The primary objective of the NBP was to ensure delivery of fibre in areas of the island that were determined not to be commercially viable.

‘Funding was strictly limited for this purpose and could not be accessed to support the roll-out of fibre in other areas, or for connecting homes or businesses to the network.’

He said the £264,776 funding was allocated from within the total budget approved for NBP and ensured the project was able to complete on time.

MT had made over 30 planning applications which span both NBP and non-NBP areas, he said.

The £264,776 figure relates to areas included in 10 of those applications, all being inside the NBP zones.