Welcome to Phonemann! If you are getting ripped by your UK mobile network making calls to the Isle of Man you’re in the right place.
Why Phonemann?
If you have friends or family on the Island you might have noticed that recently your phone bill is much higher than expected. That’s because as far as the UK networks are concerned, the Isle of Man is no longer part of the UK. What that means is (depending on your mobile phone provider) you will be paying near enough to 40p per minute to ring home as calls to 01624 & 07624 numbers are ‘out of bundle’! You’re being totally ripped off!
Personally, I was spending around £100+ per month on top of my plan (see img) which was a little frustrating considering my mobile provider (O2) never warned me of these changes. Looking around, all the networks did the same thing around the same time.
A good example; if you are with Vodafone and you ring the Isle of Man for an hour a week (8 mins / day) you will get a bill of £96 on top of your bill (4 x 60) x 0.40p = £96.
Considering I run a business mobile network in the UK and was born and grew up on the Island I knew there must be a way to save some money here.
What is it and How does it work?
It’s a service that allows anyone in the UK to call the Isle of Man at a reasonable cost. We allocate you with a UK number (which is covered in your inclusive minutes with your current mobile provider). When you call this number we forward it to an IOM number of your choice over our network. It’s so cost effective we can offer unlimited calls to IOM landlines for £6/month. Simple! And it will save you an absolute fortune.
The £6 / month pays for the line rental of your UK number and the cost of forwarding the calls over the network – we’re not in this to make huge profits just to make it easier to call home.
So it started out as a project on how I could personally save some cash (I’m the only Manx person that works for Deskphone i.e. the only one that cares about this problem), then I sent it to some friends and family and now it’s become a bit too good not to share. I built the site you are on right now over the weekend and voila Phonemann. Cheap calls to the Isle of Man!
I really hope phonemann helps people to connect to your loved ones in the IOM and would love any feedback that anyone has!
Regards,
Luke Faragher
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