Enterprise Ireland
Annual Report and Accounts 2007
Annual Report and Accounts 2007
Having invented a software-based communications gateway that allows personal mobile phones to be used cost effectively on aircraft, ships and in remote areas, Kerry company Altobridge has the potential and the ambition for rapid growth
Headquartered at Kerry Technology Park and with a presence in the US, Malaysia, Sweden and Dublin, the Enterprise Ireland-supported company leads the world in cutting the cost of wireless communications.
Its core technology makes GSM communications for remote subscriber groups commercially viable for the first time and its cost cutting solutions such as ‘Local Connectivity’, are proving to be a real boon to emerging market mobile operators, remote communities and territories, seafarers, airline travellers and the world’s military and first responder emergency personnel.
Having won the race for the world’s first commercial in-flight GSM services, the company has made unparalleled advances in the aeronautical and maritime communications markets.
A suitcase-sized portable version of its technology can enable standard mobile phone usage anywhere, under any circumstances – vital in disaster or emergency situations where communications between first responders, government agencies, rescue teams, or corporations and their key employees can be quickly established.
As worldwide sales of its ground-breaking technology take hold, Altobridge is pushing towards an annual turnover of over €30 million by 2010.
The company secured three major contracts in 2007, including a landmark licensing agreement to supply its boundary-breaking Local Connectivity solution to Ericsson, the world-leading telecoms supplier. This software facilitates local switching of local calls, ensuring that only the signalling is backhauled over the network, therefore cutting operators’ backhaul transmission costs significantly. The solution can also mesh between base stations in a cluster. Altobridge is currently focusing heavily on the vast market potential for this product.
“We reached a big turning point with the Ericsson deal,” says Altobridge co-founder and CEO Mike Fitzgerald. “Indirect sales of software is always the most cost effective model, it opens up a huge opportunity where we can maximise market penetration. The challenge now for Altobridge is to roll this out to all mobile operators and build new data centric and further mesh networking capability within our core offering.”
The company has invested heavily in intensive R&D and extensive testing and evaluation around the world. It has so far raised funding of over €7 million since the initiation of R&D in 2003. Key investors include the founders, staff, Claret Capital and Enterprise Ireland.
Altobridge also receives Enterprise Ireland support through the overseas teams who facilitate and assist the company at the world’s largest and most comprehensive wireless, IT and telecommunications trade shows, conferences and exhibitions. According to Fitzgerald, the teams “provide fantastic support and make it easy for us to access new markets”.
www.altobridge.com (link opens in a new browser window)
