26 Irish tech firms to watch at Mobile World Congress 2018

21 Feb 2018

Plaza de España, Barcelona. Image: Lakov Filimonov/Shutterstock

For a few days every year, Barcelona becomes the centre of the telecoms universe as Mobile World Congress cruises into town.

Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona will be the world’s largest gathering of tech and telecoms professionals, with more than 100,000 people expected to attend.

The latest tech and trends – from blockchain to 5G and AI as well as forthcoming smartphones and internet of things (IoT) devices – will be revealed at the pivotal event in Barcelona.

This year, 26 Irish tech companies will be exhibiting at the event, 15 of which will be at the Enterprise Ireland stand, located in Hall 7, Stand 7D71.

Here are the ones to watch.

A4G

Ad4Game (A4G) is one of the leading affiliate networks in the market. It promotes campaigns worldwide on its self-serve platform to several niche markets, working directly with advertisers and agencies across gaming, utilities, dating and finance. Its platform has 5bn impressions and reaches around 350m unique visitors directly.

Accuris Networks

Accuris Networks is a leader in Wi-Fi roaming, interworking and service-policy enablement. Its patented WISPr 1-plus connection protocol enables GSM-based authentication and secure Wi-Fi connectivity. The Accuris Connect service speeds up integration with mobile networks by supporting pre-paid service plans and existing billing systems.

AdaptiveMobile

AdaptiveMobile is a leader in mobile network security, protecting more than 1.5bn subscribers worldwide. AdaptiveMobile was founded in 2004 and boasts some of the world’s largest mobile operators as customers, and leading security and telecom equipment vendors as partners.

Alpha Wireless

Alpha Wireless designs and manufactures high-performance base station antennas for all applications and standards. Wireless network operators are facing new challenges with a greater customer demand on their networks and the need to minimise the cost of serving these subscribers. This need requires the proper packaging of antenna solutions to meet the demand for wireless data.

Anam

Anam claims to be the fastest-growing independent SMS messaging revenue expert in the world, filtering billions of messages in more than 60 countries. The company’s offering has generated incremental revenues in excess of $2m per annum for every 1m subscribers.

Amiba

Amiba is a leading developer of cloud business communications platforms for ISPs, mobile network operators, mobile virtual network operators and mobile virtual network enterprises. Its GDPR-ready platform is currently deployed across thousands of seats in the US, France, UK, Ireland, Holland and Belgium. It has 30-plus years of experience serving telcos and counts 760,000 SME customers.

Area22

Area22 is named after the language comprehension centre of the brain that gives humans the ability to have meaningful conversations. The Area22 platform provides the missing elements of speech comprehension, personality, contextual awareness and data integration to current voice engagement technologies. This will allow customers to naturally build trust in and have worthwhile conversations with brands using their virtual personal assistants.

Aspire Technology

Aspire Technology delivers end-to-end mobile network life-cycle professional services and product solutions to the world’s leading telecoms, equipment and software providers. It specialises in radio network optimisation of ZTE; Huawei and Ericsson infrastructure using product and service solutions for capacity management; network design; and planning and optimisation, complemented by legacy infrastructure support.

Asavie

The Asavie PassBridge platform delivers on-demand connectivity services to manage and secure connectivity across diverse networks, at scale. It is a key element in the industrial internet of things (IIoT). In partnership with more than 20 leading mobile operators including AT&T, Telefónica, Three and Vodafone, and leading providers such as Dell and AWS, Asavie enables more than 10,000 end-user enterprises, large and small, to scale their smart, connected projects.

Benetel

Benetel gets small cells to market faster. The company develops hardware platform solutions for 4G, LTE and eNodeB small cells. It is also developing leading 5G and centralised radio access network (CRAN) solutions for telecoms companies and equipment manufacturers.

Card Centric

Card Centric is one of the leading SIM and smart card suppliers in the UK and Ireland. With headquarters in Dublin and subsidiaries in Singapore, Istanbul and Tunis, Card Centric is operational across many continents. Being a member to SIMalliance, the company is known for its fast, accurate and timely delivery of SIM cards and smart cards; machine-to-machine (M2M) modules and platforms; eUICC, eSIM, IoT and SIM applications; and supporting systems worldwide.

CommProve

CommProve is already a recognised leading manufacturer of network monitoring solutions and is delivering the promise of big data by offering a set of off-the-shelf telecom business assurance applications. This helps to steer opex and capex investment decisions, impacting the operators’ bottom line.

Cubic Telecom

Cubic Telecom offers global solutions for leading companies, providing IoT, M2M and mobile device technology all over the world. Its partners and customers include some of the world’s leading Fortune 100 tablet and notebook manufacturers and retailers, as well as M2M and automotive companies, such as Audi, Lenovo, HP, Rakuten and Woolworths.

Ding

Claiming to be the world’s largest mobile top-up network, Ding safely delivers a top-up every second of every day. Created to help people living abroad to support loved ones back home, the company is directly connected to more than 400 operators in 130 countries with a reach of 4bn phones. Top-up can be sent via the web or mobile app and in more than 600,000 retail locations globally. Ding employs a team of 200 and is headquartered in Dublin.

Druid Software

Druid Software’s cutting-edge Raemis system provides all the functionality of a large, public cellular network, but can be hosted on an industry-standard server and deployed rapidly in enterprise environments. Its technology played a crucial factor in the development and roll-out of the in-flight 3G service, which is operated by Panasonic firm AeroMobile and is being installed on Air Berlin’s entire A330-200 fleet.

Equiendo

Equiendo’s predictive analytics RAN capacity solution powers action 
to evolve 5G-ready future networks. The company’s EquiTraf solution enables mobile operators to optimise network revenue generation opportunities, improve efficiency and grow capacity. Companies such as Telefónica, Digicel, Vodafone, Three, BT, NetShare, Eir and Manx Telecom rely on Equiendo’s cloud-based solutions to deliver results.

Fijowave

Fijowave specialise in M2M and provides services to some of the major telecoms players in Europe. Its core product is an IoT security platform that allows secure two-way communications between a controlling portal server and any IP-enabled device, regardless of its location. Fijoport can be connected to remote devices via a wired connection or by 3G, 4G or LTE, and it will have satellite connectivity by 2019.

iKydz

iKydz has developed a small device that plugs into a Wi-Fi router to give parents the ability to control and manage children’s access to the internet at home and on 3G and 4G. The device is a safe children’s Wi-Fi service that is reliable and, according to the company, impossible to hack.

Inhance Technology

Cork and Boston-based Inhance Technology helps blue-chip mobile carriers, retailers and insurers to increase profits, drive new business and retain more customers. Global pioneers in remote, mobile device diagnostics and content transfer, Inhance Technology’s clients include Best Buy, Dixons Carphone Warehouse, Orange and insurance giant AIG.

Klas Telecom

Klas Telecom is an engineering and design company with more than 25 years
 of experience developing innovative communications solutions for the network edge. The company specialises in integrating enterprise networking capabilities from global IT leaders with in-house hardware and software platforms designed to meet market demands and the most stringent environmental requirements.

Madme

Madme’s mobile engagement software helps mobile carrier clients and brands to achieve higher engagement levels with customers using relevant rich, interactive media as they use their devices, ensuring a more personal experience. The platform enables the presentation of non-intrusive content to customers, triggered by real-time events on the handset. It is backed by powerful profiling, segmentation and analytics tools.

Openet

Openet provides the systems and expertise to assist communication service providers to grow and become digital service providers. This is enabled through its real-time monetisation, control and big-data preparation systems. Openet is a member of the ETSI Industry Specification Group for NFV. At the vanguard of network virtualisation, it has successfully deployed solutions with many world-leading tier-one operators.

Software Radio Systems

Software Radio Systems (SRS) delivers high-performance L1, L2 and L3 software for wireless systems. The company provides custom product solutions, applications and modular, portable libraries for a range of wireless technologies including LTE, LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro, including NB-IoT.

Tango Telecom

Tango Telecom is a leading global provider of data monetisation solutions for evolving mobile networks. Its solutions are deployed at the core of some of the world’s most demanding networks, including América Móvil, Telenor Group, Telefónica, Indosat and the Axiata Group. It currently supports more than 140 live systems, serving 700m subscribers in 43 countries.

Taoglas

Taoglas, an Enniscorthy-based tech company, provides advanced antenna and RF solutions to the world’s leading wireless and IoT companies. With world-class design, support and test centres across the globe, Taoglas works with its customers to provide the best solution for their unique antenna and RF challenges, quickly and easily.

Formed 13 years ago, the company is led by Dermot O’Shea and Ronan Quinlan, employing over 40 people in Wexford and Dublin and more than 350 worldwide. With in-house manufacturing, Taoglas deliver the highest quality products across different wireless and IoT use cases using LTE, GNSS, Wi-Fi and beyond to 5G with success stories across a variety of applications including telematics, automotive, metering, smart grid, wearables, medical devices, high-speed-video broadcasting and remote monitoring.

Velona Systems

Velona Systems brings cyber-level protection to voice systems to ensure privacy and GDPR compliance, service availability, and assurance, while preventing fraud in unified comms services. Based on its unique deep-DNA signalling analysis, Velona protects from voice malware attacks such as one-shot malformed messaging, robocalling, denial of service, social engineering scams, insider or external toll fraud, and voice privacy breaches.

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John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com