Commercialisation opportunity
Researchers at the Centre for Telecommunications Value Chain Research (CTVR) at Trinity College Dublin have received €400,000 funding from Enterprise Ireland to bring Internet protocol telephony, as pioneered by Skype on PCs, to mobile phones.
The researchers aim to create a spin-out company to sell the software, called Metakall, and are looking for wireless hotspot operators, internet telephony service providers and handset manufacturers to commercialise the system.
CTVR has filed patent applications, and the project will now be progressed into a full working implementation to field test Metakall.
The new technology allows users to roam and pay-as-you go at low cost rates, using a laptop or WiFi phone, wherever the wireless internet is available.
CTVR Director Donal O’Mahony says, “Imagine the possibility of going anywhere in the world and using your wireless phone or laptop to make calls through the Internet for as little as 5 cents a minute, with no other costs.”
“Right now you can make Internet-based phone calls, but you will also have to pay a monthly registration charge of over €20 to an internet service provider, or buy a scratch card in each location for about €10.”
“Only then can you use service services like Skype or Vonage, for example. We took the view that those kind of charges don’t make sense for just a phone call, so we’ve developed a system which users are going to like a lot.”
The Metakall technology pays hotspot operators small amounts of cash in real-time. “Our software will sit in your laptop or WiFi phone, automatically logging you on to the nearest hotspot and paying only as you make your calls.”
“A real-time meter will show how much your call is costing, as you talk. The rates will vary, but on average what we are looking at is about five cents per minute,” says O’Mahony.
The Metakall software is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and Vista for use on laptops, and Microsoft Windows Mobile, including HP, iPaq and Palm Treo handheld PCs. The CTVR research team is porting the software to the most popular platforms for a number of WiFi telephony handsets, including Linksys, Netgear and others.
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