Making calls with Metakall

An Irish university research project has been granted €400,000 in Enterprise Ireland funding to bring advanced new mobile telephone systems to the global market.

Called Metakall, the new project is the idea of researchers at Ireland’s Centre for Telecommunications Value Chain Research (CTVR), headquartered in Trinity College, Dublin (TCD).

Metakall is a new software invention which its creators claim will provide telephone users with low cost calls using public wireless hotspots and the internet as the network infrastructure. The systems are being developed by CTVR in Dublin.

CTVR foresees a fully-fledged commercial spin-off arising from its research and has filed patent applications to protect the intellectual property involved. The project will now be progressed into a full working implementation when CTVR starts field tests of the new systems.

Possibly the most innovative feature of the new technology will be the ability for consumers to roam and pay-as-you go at low cost rates, using a laptop or WiFi phone wherever the wireless internet is available.