MOOZLER:'FIVE YEARS ago the main competition within the mobile phone business was other operators. Now they face increased competition from internet companies. We saw this trend emerging and tried to come up with something that would give them an edge," says John Hamill, founder of Vennetics, a communications and IT company in Dundalk.
The result is Moozler a new low-cost international phone service that goes head-to-head with Skype.
“Our target market for Moozler is the mobile operators and we have already signed Blueface.ie with a second in the pipeline,” Hamill says.
Vennetics has designed Moozler to make the most of internet telephony using the mobile phone. For example, if quality problems arise on an internet call from their PC, users can seamlessly move the call to a better quality GSM connection on their phone.
Similarly, if a user wants to add video to a call from any standard GSM handset they can swap the conversation across to their PC with a camera.
“Moozler combines the main advantages of internet and mobile phone technology such as free video calls, mobility and SMS,” Hamill says. “Like traditional mobile networks, this puts the intelligence in the cloud rather than at the end points and allows Moozler to offer lots of novel features.”
Since the PC application shares the user’s existing mobile number, the full range of Moozler features is available immediately to any GSM user without the need to buy a new phone number or new bundles of voice minutes from an internet company.
Moozler is the result of cooperation between Vennetics and Northern Ireland software company, Instil.
The companies were introduced by InterTrade Ireland. “We provide the technology on the server side and they provide the PC software,” Hamill says.
Vennetics was set up in 2007. The company is now looking to raise about €1 million in venture capital to develop the business. An overseas investor has already committed to the project and Hamill says the search is on for an Irish investor to complete the funding requirements.
