Dublin-based WINI Technologies was named the winner of the prestigious AePONA/Neustar Developer challenge at the Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona last night.
Michael Crossey, VP of Marketing for AePONA, announced that WINI’s use and integration of location, SMS, call routing and mobile billing APIs made their WINIcabs product “stand out immediately”.
WINI, which stands for When I Need It, Where I Need it, is a Blackrock-based start-up technology company. The WINI cabs system is a patented, fully automated taxi dispatch system that links available taxis to customers’ mobile phones. It automatically establishes their location and the customer’s phone call is diverted to an available taxi driver that is less than a five-minute drive away. Once the pickup point is established, the customer receives a security confirmation text with the driver’s name, car make, model and colour of the taxi and taxi licence number. After the trip is completed, the customer is given several additional options to pay the taxi fare, including charging to a credit card or even charging it to their mobile phone bill. Anyone can call a taxi using the WINIcabs system from any mobile phone.
Paul O’Loughlin Kennedy, CEO of WINI Technologies, said, “Within hours of us achieving this award we have been approached by several Government bodies and international communications companies to discuss our product and how it may benefit them. I hope that our success will encourage other Irish technology companies to enter the Global stage.”
Live testing has already started among the 900 Dublin taxi drivers that have signed up for the system. The full commercial launch for WINI is planned for summer 2011.
