€5m funding for Cork telecoms firm


30 Aug 2007

In a bid to become the world’s first global mobile service provider Cork-based telecoms company Cubic Telecom has raised €5m in funding for technology which it claims will drive down the cost of international roaming charges.

The company was founded in 2005 by prominent telecoms blogger Pat Phelan and has offices in Canada and Portugal as well as headquarters in Cork, offering its services in 160 countries.

An initial €3.5m in funding was garnered from private backers to develop a range of products for both mobile and home phones as well as its own virtual carrier network.

The remaining €1.5m is being used to fund several launches in the next six months which will see the promotion of Cubic’s products and services.

Although Cubic has just made partnerships with telecoms companies to make its technology available in 160 countries, it is currently working on forming marketing partnerships with a focus on Europe, North America and Australia.

Cubic Telecom’s chief executive officer Pat Phelan said that Cubic would like to see a situation where customers can use their phone to make calls anywhere in the world for as long as they like without worrying about the cost.

“When most people think about driving down the cost of telephone calls, they think of calling from computer-to-computer. We don’t.

“We deliver simple, high quality, high-value telephone services direct to the devices that people like to use; their mobile phones. There’s no software to download, nothing to configure, nothing new to learn,” he said.

By Marie Boran