• Trials to start from August 1 st , users required to register at www.metakall.com
• Project team seeking to partner with industry to commercialise new technology
July 23rd 2008: The Department of Computer Science at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) announced today that it plans to carry out public trials in Dublin next month on advanced new mobile phone systems that could lead to consumers being able to make low cost mobile phone calls from anywhere in the world.
A project team based at the Department has pioneered the development of new software, the first of its kind in the world - codenamed ‘Metakall'- which is designed to provide mobile phone users with low cost calls using public wireless hotspots and the Internet as the network infrastructure.
During the month long trial, starting from August 1 st , users will be able to download call credit to try out the new phone system. Users will be required to first register for the trials on www.metakall.com and will receive scratch codes, which can then be converted to call credit. In turn, the call credit can be used to make mobile calls using Skype, Fring, SIP or any of the widely used Internet phone systems.
Professor Donal O'Mahony, Metakall Project Director, said: “The possibilities for this new technology are huge. For the first time, users will be able to make low cost calls from any part of the world using a handset or other mobile device, and will be able to seamlessly roam from one wireless hot spot area to another”.
Last year, the Metakall project team secured €400,000 in funding from Enterprise Ireland for the initial development of the new technology. Now, the centre is looking to partner with handset vendors and manufacturers and wireless hotspot operators to commercialise the software and bring the service to market.
“ As an alternative to cellular telephony, Metakall will open up new revenue streams for firms in the mobile industry, such as operators of Wi-Fi hot spots, and will boost the demand for low-cost handsets. With the right support, this service can be rolled out world-wide over a very short time period ,” said Prof. O'Mahony.
“Since we first kicked off this process, we've been in contact with several firms, both indigenous and multinational, to discuss the commercialisation of the software and the next steps that need to be taken. Given the likely advantages for users, there's been a significant level of interest from the commercial sector,” he said.
The Metakall software runs on Microsoft Windows XP and Vista - i.e. on virtually all laptops - as well as on Microsoft Windows Mobile, which covers handheld PCs, such as HP iPAQ, and smart phones from HTC, Samsung and others. The team has also targeted the emerging low-cost handsets coming from Asian manufacturers, running platform software such as Qtopia and Google's Android (GPhone) operating system.
“ This is highly dynamic market and we designed the Metakall software to move easily onto any kind of handset or gaming device that may appear over the coming months. Put simply, if a device uses Wi-Fi, our software can be used on it ,” said Prof O'Mahony.
For further information on the Department of Computer Science at Trinity College Dublin, see www.cs.tcd.ie . To sign up for the trial see www.metakall.com/TrialPages/TrialDetails.htm
For information contact:
Tim Kinsella / Charles Hogan
MRPA KINMAN Communications
T: +353 1 703 8609 / M: +353 86 043 6328