IRELAND

technology and Davis and his team set about attempting to commercialise
their research. They headed west to California - and not just the once -
to introduce their technology to all of the major players in the global
technology field. Pick a big name, they met them: Apple, Aruba
Networks, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Netgear and others. The responses
were uniformly positive, but the uptake was poor. Why? All agreed the
technology was great, but all asked the same question: ‘Where’s the
demand?’
This was 2008 and, reflecting on it now, Davis acknowledges that while the
lack of commercial buy-in was a set-back, it was never a crippling one. ‘I
never lost heart’, he says. ‘I could see the potential in it. The people I was
talking to were commercially focussed, but working in communications is
about being ahead of the curve … You have to believe in your technology.’
In this case, the belief was justified, but the work carried out at the CNRI
only found a viable commercial application once industry innovation
caught up with the research.
Demand for Wi-Fi was indeed on the rise, but the single most important
development was the introduction of the smartphone. It was, Davis
admits, ‘a complete and utter game-changer’. The sheer pervasiveness of
the technology meant that the amount of data on wireless networks ‘went
through the roof’. There was an explosion in Wi-Fi use and doubts
previously expressed by the Californian tech giants seemed suddenly
redundant. Where once the question was ‘where’s the demand’, now the
challenge was how to satisfy all the demand that existed.
Davis dusted down the technology, fine-tuned it further, and set about
the process of commercialisation. He did it with the help of entrepreneur
Mark Burke, to whom he was introduced through DIT’s Hothouse
incubation office. Burke was both excited by the work going on at the
CNRI and fully aware of its commercial possibilities. Together, Davis and
Burke founded a start-up company, OptiWi-Fi, which was incorporated
in 2011 with the aim of delivering ‘next-generation monitoring and selfoptimisation
solutions to Wi-Fi providers, Mobile Network Operators
and Wi-Fi equipment manufacturers’.
Chances are that even if you’ve never heard of them, you may well have
availed of their technology. Millions already have, mostly in the UK where
it is to be found in use on the streets and in retail outlets in Birmingham,
Glasgow and London, as well as at various sporting venues. This
expansion was greatly aided by being selected, in 2012, to join the
prestigious Wayra Academy, a global initiative of Telefonica - O2’s parent
company - to support early-stage technology start-ups. The Academy
attracted 335 applicants and OptiWi-Fi, in being only one of ten chosen,
was supported with a €50,000 investment in the company.
Since then, the story of the company has been one of trials and roll-out.
The first trial of OptiWi-Fi technology took place in Twickenham during
the England vs Italy RBS 6 Nations rugby international of March 2013,
when it was installed at a number of points – mainly corporate boxes and
bars – around the stadium. It went well, which is to say it successfully
pinpointed problems associated with the clogging up of Wi-Fi in stadium
full to its 80,000 spectator capacity.
discovery Ireland 98,99