Manx Telecom has responded to a suggestion that all SIM card owners should be registered, to try and prevent malicious and obscene phone calls, by suggesting the problem is perhaps more to do with people's attitudes than the technology they are using.

Head of customer services Adrian Cowin says measures are in place to try and stop people receiving nuisance and malicious calls, including text messages warning those responsible they have been reported to the authorities. But he adds there are thousands of people in the Isle of Man with Manx SIM cards who the company cannot identify.

The call for SIM card purchasers to provide details, including their name and address, came from a local representative of a teaching union, after he suffered months of silent and obscene calls in the early hours of the morning.

Mr Cowin says the warning messages are designed to prevent any problems escalating, but tracing Pay as you Go customers can be difficult.

He told Manx Radio:

"The majority of our users are on Pay as you Go, as opposed to contract, [although] we do have a significant contract base on the Island.

"I wouldn't like to estimate the precise number, but it certainly would be into the thousands.

"While we don't underestimate the distress that malicious calls cause - and we do our utmost to trace perpetrators, and work with the authorities to make it harder for people to make such calls - it should be remembered that these calls are a tiny minority of all calls made, and stopping them is perhaps more to do with changing people's attitudes and behaviour than the technology itself."

Manx Telecom says there is advice on dealing with nuisance and malicious calls on page 26 of the Isle of Man telephone directory.

Yesterday, Sure Mobile said it was taking steps to register Pay as you Go customers, so people who abused the mobile phone system could be easily identified and, if appropriate, prosecuted.