Intune Networks, the company behind the world’s first programmable fibre-optical packet switching platform that will handle future TV and web, has expanded into the US with the opening of its first office in Boston.
Intune has recruited two senior industry veterans to spearhead the company’s entry into the US market.
Intune Networks’ US appointments
Jim Lowrie, a 28-year stalwart of the telecommunications industry, has been appointed as vice-president of sales and business development for the Americas with responsibility for sales, business development and partnering opportunities for Intune’s expansion in the USA.
In addition, Jim Aitken, another 20-year plus industry veteran, is joining Intune as the senior director technical marketing and product management, Americas. Jim will manage Intune’s product features and carrier outreach programmes critical to ensuring that Intune’s next-generation technology is well understood and positioned with the leading American carriers.
“With the rollout of Intune’s commercial product this year, a base in the USA is critical for our expansion,” Tim Fritzley, CEO of Intune Networks, explained.
“There are tremendous global opportunities for Intune Networks to deliver its innovative technology to help revolutionise how next-generation networks and web services are developed and delivered. Our US employee base will be a key element in expanding Intune’s market coverage beyond the European carriers into North America and beyond.
“We are delighted to have brought in two such senior members of the telecommunications industry to lead our expansion into the US. Their depth of experience with other global equipment vendors and years of working with and for the leading carriers in the Americas make them uniquely qualified to help Intune maximise the opportunity in this large and crucial market,” Fritzley said.
About Intune Networks
Dublin-based Intune Networks, formed in 1999 by a group of ex-UCD photonics researchers, has developed a technology that can enable a single strand of fibre to move from carrying one signal from one operator to carrying data from 80 telecoms and TV companies all at once.
Last July, it emerged that Ireland is to become the test bed for Intune’s revolutionary technology. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan TD, contracted Intune to trial its technology here first before it hits mass manufacture. The solution – the Exemplar Network – could sort out the country’s broadband woes and catapult Ireland to the cutting edge of telecoms before anybody else.
The move will grow Intune from 100 workers in Dublin and Belfast today to employing an additional 300 people over the next three years.
The company has developed the world’s first programmable fibre-optical packet switching platform, which is critical to building an Exemplar Smart Network.
Developing this technology has the potential to position Ireland for a wave of opportunities based on the future of the internet that up to now have been considered an area of expertise of regions like Silicon Valley in the US and several Far Eastern countries that are pushing the boundaries of consumer broadband networks.
Lab trials will commence in mid-2010, with the rollout of the first phase of the Exemplar Smart Network operation before the end of that year.
By John Kennedy
Photo: John Dunne, chief marketing officer, Tim Fritzley, CEO, and Tom Farrell, chief technology officer at Intune Networks
