It's emerged that Manx Telecom suffered a software problem in its mobile phone network earlier this month, which resulted in some people being unable to make calls.

Chairman of the Communications Commission Adrian Earnshaw has been responding to a Tynwald question on the subject, from Onchan MHK Peter Karran.

Twenty-eight customers called the company's Service Centre to report the matter on Friday, March 6.

Manx Telecom says there was a service issue, which it regrets and wishes to apologise for, but the company doesn't accept it amounted to a major system failure.

The software problem arose during a routine operational activity and Manx Telecom has introduced additional safeguards to reduce the possibiltiy of it happening again.

The company is in the process of replacing its existing mobile, fixed and broadband networks within its 'Next Generation Network'.