Both of the Isle of Man’s phone companies are claiming that their service is best.

Sure and Manx Telecom point to surveys that show their own network outperformed their rivals’.

The first salvo was fired by Sure.

On Monday it said a network quality assessment had been carried out by independent telecommunication network experts Systemics, which said its 4G mobile network was the fastest for data downloads, with speeds averaging nearly 40% faster than Manx Telecom.

It said the mobile coverage provided by Sure was assessed to be much stronger and more widespread with 75% of the island able to access 4G+ services compared to just 4% on the Manx Telecom network.

The report - commissioned by Sure - also noted that Sure was ’clearly ahead of the competition in terms of voice quality’.

The next day Manx Telecom responded.

It said its network has been declared the island’s best overall in an independent survey.

Towards the end of last year, Manx Telecom commissioned Equiendo to conduct research which compared the performance of Manx Telecom’s mobile network against Sure’s network.

It said that more than 1,000 mobile-to-mobile voice calls and more than 3,000 smartphone data tests were analysed, making it ’the most comprehensive study of its type ever conducted on the Isle of Man’.

Equiendo concluded that Manx Telecom’s mobile network ’performs best for both voice and data performance and is the overall winner for network benchmarking’.

The survey showed that Manx Telecom’s mobile network was the island’s overall best network for voice quality and mobile broadband performance, both in towns and rural areas.

Stephen Kane, head of retail product at Manx Telecom, said: ’The research carried out by Equiendo was not restricted to one test type or speed type - and therefore gives a clearer picture of overall mobile network performance and capability.

’Equiendo is highly respected across the mobile industry as an authoritative source of independent benchmarking data, so our network being rated as the Isle of Man’s leading mobile network in such a comprehensive survey is great news for us and our customers.

’Our mobile network is the result of many years of investment, and it will continue to be a priority for us in parallel with investment in fibre broadband for consumers and businesses.’