Sure celebrated 17 years of Isle of Man TT sponsorship

At Sure, we’re proud to be part of the Isle of Man community, with the 2023 Isle of Man TT finished for another year it marked our 17th year as Official Telecommunications Partner for the races.

Sure first became the Official Telecommunications Partner of the Isle of Man TT in 2007, the centenary year of the event and the same year we launched on the Isle of Man as a mobile services provider, opening both the office and Douglas store. Sure has grown exponentially since then, launching broadband in 2010, fixed line services in 2015 and investing in our own fibre network from 2017. The team has grown from 12 employees to 50 and we’ve continually expanded our range of services, most recently into the ICT and modern workplace space.

Innovation

We continue to use our technological expertise and services as Telecommunications partner to directly support the evolution of the event series. This year saw the implementation of a raft of new technology for the races which included additional safety measures to protect the riders.

Bespoke GPS

Each rider was fitted with a bespoke GPS on their bike, powered by our 4G SIMs, to deliver real-time data from any point around the TT course. The GPS monitored riders and key support vehicles involved with the organisation of the TT and fed location and telemetry back to race control. The initiative was brought in on a trial basis in 2022 to a small number of bikes and was mandatory for this year’s races.

Digital flags

Our 4G network also supported another new race safety initiative: powering the digital flag system. Introduced in 2022 with a small number of flags around the Mountain Course, this year the number of computerised red flags increased to 39. This technology is a failsafe system for race control to be able to call a halt to the races at the push of a button as well as providing other information.

Live streaming

This is the second year that the globally followed races were livestreamed, with Sure continuing to deliver resilient connectivity. This allowed for those around the course to watch all the live action on their smart phones, and people at home locally and globally to tune in so no one missed out on experiencing the world-famous event.

Spectator support

As sponsors, we were proud to offer TT fans free WiFi throughout the Grandstand and Paddock area to keep everyone up to date with event news, share photos and videos, and check lap times as they were released. The Grandstand accommodates approximately 6,000 people over the course of the TT, including officials, teams, spectators and fans.

We have increased our involvement each year at the TT, enhancing and improving the events with cutting edge technology connecting more people than ever to the races.

Sure is also proud to be the Official Telecommunications Partner for the Manx Grand Prix, taking place on the Isle of Man 20 – 28 August 2023.