Mobile Tornado, an Israeli firm that recently moved its headquarters to Dublin, is offering Irish firms "push to talk" technology to cut their communications costs.
The company has teamed up with the voice and data conferencing firm Spectel to offer firms an instant messenger service for staff, which enables them to use their mobiles like walkie talkies.
Mobile Tornado is also talking directly to companies and mobile operators about using its service to provide corporate and consumer "push to talk" services, similar to those in use in the US.
"We have signed up an Irish waste management firm for trials with our technology and have deals with a Chinese police force and an Asian logistics firm," says Mr Mark Horne, Mobile Tornado's chief executive. "Push to talk technology enables firms to dramatically cut their mobile costs because it uses voice over IP technology so you aren't charged per call but are always connected."
Doctors, consultants or anyone who needs to stay in regular contact with colleagues are potential clients for push to talk, says Mr Horne, who previously was chief executive of Britain's first software chain and the firm a.p.solve.
Push to talk technology has been pioneered by the US mobile phone carrier Nextel, which has 13 million people connected to its walkie talkie network. But it has been slower to get off the ground in Europe than in the US or Asia, according to Mr Horne, who says Ireland could become a big market for the technology in the near future.
Meteor, the third mobile operator which is owned by the US firm Western Wireless, says "push to talk" technology is on the firm's product road map. It will probably introduce the technology when its new high speed "Edge" network technology is rolled out across the Republic.
Spectel's director of strategic technologies, Mr David Seavers, is upbeat about the potential for the technology, although in the short term mobile operators may delay implementation to protect their voice revenues: "Once one mobile operator deploys it, others will follow due to competition. The speed of uptake depends on how the operators charge for the technology."
Mobile Tornado, which is backed by a number of high profile British investors such as Mr Peter Wilkinson, the founder of Freeserve, hopes to cash in on a commercial opportunity valued by the Yankee Group of consultants at about €1.6 billion by 2008.
The firm is also hoping to cash in on the Republic's growing reputation as a technological hub by shifting its corporate headquarters to the Digital Hub in Dublin.
Mr Horne says the company was attracted to the Digital Hub because of the availability of research skills and the environment in the Republic. The appointment of Irish-born Ms Maria Archer as chief operating officer was also a factor, he says.
Mobile Tornado plans to set up a new research centre at the Waterford Institute of Technology next year and recruit up to 40 Irish staff, says Mr Horne.
