This is the final part of our Topical Talks business roundtable.

Dr Alex Allinson MHK, in his capacity as chairman of Manx Utilities, raised a question about utilities in general.

Mike Foy said telecoms was an important issue, which should be treated differently to things such as being able to turn lights on or off.

He said the government strategy paper talked of 4G and 5G coming to the island which he thought was a bold statement.

Gary Lamb referred to the recent huge 02 outage, which caused problems for millions in the UK and worldwide.

‘It was all just because of a certification problem with some software.’

Dr Allinson said: ‘So in terms of telecoms strategy the main priority is fibre.

‘Trying to get as good coverage as you can.’

Dr Allinson asked about roaming charges.

Manx Telecom boss Gary Lamb said: ‘Roaming charges dropped significantly a couple of years ago and there have been a lot of positive comments since.

‘On fibre, I have advocated that we should put fibre around the island as soon as we can.

‘It’s a question of economics - this would be a £30m to £40m investment and to deliver fibre island-wide means collaboration with the government is really important.’