Dublin telecoms software company Openet says it plans to hire at least 50 staff this year, bringing its total employment number to more than 300. Openet provides software that processes events and manages transactions on telecommunications networks. It is deployed by about 80 service providers worldwide.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week, senior Openet managers revealed how their software had been central to AT&T's introduction of the Apple iPhone in the US last June.
AT&T needed to overhaul its systems in advance of the iPhone launch in order to split revenues with Apple, but also because the iPhone allows charging for a range of services, not just the traditional voice and text services.
"We allowed AT&T to consolidate the bills that they send out to their iPhone customers," explains Niall Norton, chief executive of Openet. The introduction of the Apple device saw the average customer bill balloon from six pages to 62 pages, he says.
"The number of services that operators offer is increasing all the time. Our time is now."
Norton said revenues were likely to be up 25 per cent this year. In 2006, the firm had turnover of €29.7 million and a pre-tax profit of €3.5 million.
Chief technology officer and founder Joe Hogan said the importance of its software to operators, who use it to ensure they are billing correctly for services, means it is very particular about the quality of engineers it hires.
"We have a very hardcore engineering pedigree and we want to maintain that," he says.
Although the company has substantial overseas operations, Mr Hogan says the intention is to keep all core research and development in Dublin. It is also looking to expand from its base in billing and rating to apply its technology to mobile advertising, set-top boxes and internet TV.
