17th June 1896

Sure is founded as the States Telephone Department

Sure provides mobile, landline and broadband services to Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and a handful of other island communities around the world. It was founded in 1896, in Guernsey, as the States Telephone Department and opened its first office in Jersey in 2004. At the time, it was operating under the Cable & Wireless brand, having been sold by the States of Guernsey to Cable & Wireless PLC in 2002.

Sure, which was one of Cable & Wireless’ brands, became part of Batelco Islands Limited when the latter purchased it in 2013.

It was almost very different

In 1896, Guernsey was beyond the jurisdiction of the National Telephone Company, which had responsibility for installing the phone network on the mainland, but that didn’t stop National from trying its hand on the island. It put up several poles and some cables without authorisation, assuming that once they were up it would be more difficult to take them down. It was mistaken. The States tore them down and maintained a monopoly on phone services across the island.

The States Telephone Department became Guernsey Telecoms Ltd in 2001 and, in 2002, Guernsey Telecoms was sold to Cable & Wireless. It only became Sure once it had expanded its service beyond Guernsey to also serve Jersey and the Isle of Man. It was sold again in April 2013 to Batelco, Bahrain’s largest telecoms company.