joeyconcrete Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Does the Communication Commision operate in the way OFFCOM seems to, or are it's powers limited to the awarding of licences? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think to a degree they are answerable to OFCOM, I think they sort of 'copy' them, so when OFCOM does something (Auctions spectrum etc) the Comms Comission here does too, they probably follow their practices and suchlike too. I'm not sure if they're "part" of or affiliated to OFCOM though. The MEA technology is just an "alternative" to ADSL2+ and Next-generation wireless, I certainly wouldn't harp on about it holding the island back. As discussed in multiple threads, distribution isn't an issue, getting the stuff to distribute is. Now the cable the MEA (Government) own is a whole different matter. If that was released to other "compaines" (note the plural) then that could provide good value communications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amadeus Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 Why was the Isle of Man billed as the first place for 3G to go live? The money for the infrastructure was paid for by us, yet where is my Manx 3G phone? IMHO, 3G and UMTS are outdated already - it was rubbish from the start in times were WiFi is available at every corner - just look at the desperate marketing fight "3" is putting up in the UK - I bought one of them phones on a payg deal - costs me a tenner and I keep the phone in my car as camera and for emergencies - would I ever use it for real? No.. Will people ever be willing to pay horrendous charges for little football/music/comedy videos on their mobiles? No.. Should we be happy we don't have it? Yes! Why do we get charged £20 line rental.... I was more concerned about the charges they put on me when I moved house - transferring the line and my dsl connection to the new house put me back nearly 100 quid - if I wanted to keep my old number, that would have been another 20 quid - and no-one can tell me that it costs that much to flick a switch and maybe change a jumper... I guess that many people go on about MT having a monopoly and all that - well, see it that way: For absolute ages, Deutsche Telekom had the monopoly in Germany - they supplied literally every phone you ever used - from public ones to mobiles - then the market was opened and things went downhill - the prices did, our Telekom did and now it's all chaos and competition - great for the consumer, not so great for the people working at Deutsche Telekom, as another 20000 are being fired at the moment - looking at how small the IOM is, I can only compare this with the times when we had two shipping companies and eveyone knows how that ended... Although I do not like the idea of any company having a monopoly (hence my dislike towards Google and Microsoft), I think it works quite well over here - if they would drop the prices or even, god forbit, become a government owned, non-profit company, the world would be nearly perfect.. But that's only my opinion, really... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatshaft Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 How can they obtain 60% increase in profits in the very year they built the new Telecom centre? * Because OPERATING profit, does not include capital expenditure, the cost of this building will be deferred over a number of years in their capital expenditure, otherwise company results would go up and down like yoyos every year that they did or did not have a large capital project completed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatshaft Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 Why did the Isle of Man government make the initiative of being an ‘e’ island vanish? Nothing to do with Manx Telecom that. I presume you are referring to the e-gaming industry. Quite simply, the Gaming Commission and governemnt officials involved in this area hadn't a clue about the industry, or what was required by the operators to make it work. All that was ever offered was an increasing number of restrictive practices that eventually led to all licensees saying enough is enough, cya later!! And dont believe the bullxxxx that was peddled recently about the no US play restriction being at the behest of these same licence holders. While it is true that the American companies would not have taken US business anyway, as they had too much to lose in their home market for that, they did not REQUEST that these restrictions were monitored daily with reports being available for the commissioners to inspect at will, and the other companies were under no such restriction but strangely (as there was supposedly no manx directive) also were unable to take US players. This could have been a multi-million pound industry for the IoM, but it was seriously botched and yet next to nothing has been said about it. Getting MGM and Kerzner to locate in the island was a huge coup, losing them in little over a year was mismanagement on an enormous scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amadeus Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 This could have been a multi-million pound industry for the IoM, but it was seriously botched and yet next to nothing has been said about it. Getting MGM and Kerzner to locate in the island was a huge coup, losing them in little over a year was mismanagement on an enormous scale. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Now that, I agree with... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ans Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 Getting MGM and Kerzner to locate in the island was a huge coup, losing them in little over a year was mismanagement on an enormous scale. I'm pretty sure we'll see companies coming back. There's been some changes in the legislation and benefits that make it much more attractive now. By their very nature, companies like these can be quite transient given that their business is run on a few servers. No large machinery to move, small numbers of staff that don't require 'prime' Athol Street area offices etc etc. They'll go where they can get the best sort of deal and service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyconcrete Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 This could have been a multi-million pound industry for the IoM, but it was seriously botched and yet next to nothing has been said about it. Getting MGM and Kerzner to locate in the island was a huge coup, losing them in little over a year was mismanagement on an enormous scale. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I've never understood the whole situation surrounding the departure of these online casinos, what sanctions or policies made them leave? Was it the policies of an individual or just the failings of government as a whole? Personally I'd love the Isle of Man to be some kind of internet or technology center, but sadly I can't really seeing it happen. The government seem to try very hard with the various E-this, E-That campaigns and aged ministers going to gaming conferences but so far it seems worthless. I know there's Incagold and Microgaming but I don't really know much about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 I've never understood the whole situation surrounding the departure of these online casinos, what sanctions or policies made them leave? Was it the policies of an individual or just the failings of government as a whole? I gather it was because the USA didn't open up its e-gaming borders, not sure how that can be classed as mis-management by the iom. MGM didn't move elsewhere, it shut it's internet operation down. Personally I'd love the Isle of Man to be some kind of internet or technology center, but sadly I can't really seeing it happen. The government seem to try very hard with the various E-this, E-That campaigns and aged ministers going to gaming conferences but so far it seems worthless. I know there's Incagold and Microgaming but I don't really know much about them. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I agree, but that's missing the point. They're not trying to be a cutting edge technology centre, they're trying to be a cutting edge jurisdiction. They're not actually too bad on that front, though the degree of regulation is tough for many industries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatshaft Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 I've never understood the whole situation surrounding the departure of these online casinos, what sanctions or policies made them leave? Was it the policies of an individual or just the failings of government as a whole? I gather it was because the USA didn't open up its e-gaming borders, not sure how that can be classed as mis-management by the iom. MGM didn't move elsewhere, it shut it's internet operation down. [apologies for bump of a very old thread that I never replied to back then] I can't speak for MGM and why they closed completely, but I know the reason that most of the other companies left was due to over-regulation. The commissioners had no idea what they were doing at the outset, but still had the strictest set of regualtions in the world at that time. Despite this, they then tried to regulate after the fact, continually bringing in more and more restrictions as they went along and found out more about the business. Meanwhile licensees had signed up to the island under the original regs and would never have come if they'd know what was waiting for them. The final straw was the interference from the banking industry, that effectively lead to the Govt. attempting to introduce banking style restrictions on depositing to sites which would have made trading virtually impossible. Banking is not online gaming, any more than it's retail shopping, or playing golf. But the banks viewed the taking of money to play in an online casino as the same as depositing funds in a bank account, and thought they were being victimised by IoM banking rules, that lead to campaign to get the gaming industry to more or less conform to something similar to their banking regs without any idea or care of what that would do to a gaming business. It broke the camels back, and they all left. It's been a long road back, and still only Poker Stars have come to the IoM I believe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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