Irish company providing US military with mobile phone technology

cork | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Thursday September 25, 2008 09:24

by John Jefferies

Cobh, Co. Cork

According to an article in today's Irish Examiner a Cork based company, Cubic Telecom, is supplying the US military with what it describes as "innotive mobile phone SIM cards" which the US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq are currently testing.

In yet another example of Irish involvement in work with military applications the product, called the Max-Roam SIM card, "piggybacks the mobile phone service of the country the user is located in but transfers the mobile number to a landline, thus reducing costs significantly".

According to the company's CEO Pat Phelan, quoted in today's Examiner, "At present, the American military has approximately 1.2 million servicemen serving abroad. The SIM card cannot be tracked, so it wouldn’t compromise covert actions".

Mr. Phelan also said, “The SIM cards are also being tested in Africa and Asia by a number of European armies which have peacekeeping forces there,” He then thanked Enterprise Ireland for their "great help".

Mr. Phelan summed up by saying “The beauty of that is you don’t get a horrendous bill later. You can’t overspend on this system and you can top up the credit automatically through the phone,”

So there we have it - more involvement by Irish companies, backed by the Irish taxpayers through Enterprise Ireland getting involved with what is essentially an extension of the arms trade. What scruples will be used in deciding who to sell this technology to?

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Comments (1 of 1)

Good to see.

by Pat Warbucks

Sun Sep 28, 2008 20:14

Its good to see another Irish entrepreneur getting a piece of the U.S. military expenditure action. It augurs well for continued Irish economic development. And its not all based in Galway either, so fair play to Cork.

With astute businessmen like CTL's Conchur O Bradaigh, Rivada Network's Declan Ganley, (both part of Galway's emerging military-industrial complex), and now with Cork-based Pat Phelan's Cubic Telecom, the Irish economy is strategically well placed to take full advantage of the commercial opportunities afforded by U.S. military projects to promote democracy around the world.

Congratulations to all.

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Irish company providing US military with mobile phone technology

Comments (1 of 1)