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Starent develops solution for instant voice messaging

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CIOL Bureau
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PUNE: Starent Networks, a privately held company founded by Ashraf Dahod, has developed an innovative Intelligent Mobile Gateway solution that connects mobile users to IP networks and mobile operators to their users, enabling data, voice and media services through wireless carriers.



"Unlike many products on the market today that have been designed for legacy applications and modified for the wireless market, Starent Networks has built this next generation carrier-class platform from the ground up, specifically to meet the unique requirements of the mobile environment", Ashraf Dahod, president and CEO, Starent Networks told media persons at a press conference.

The Starent ST16 Intelligent Mobile Gateway is designed specifically for the wireless work environment making instant voice messaging a reality. It will support over a million users on a single platform. Starent is Dahod's fifth start-up. "Everyone is spending millions of dollars trying to cram the feature of a desk-top (computer) onto a telephone,'' says Dahod. "Starent's technology allows users to access the Internet "using the mouth and ears". "You can say what you want and our device will see it and hear it,'' he adds. Dahod claimed that this is the first time such a service would be made available to mobile users worldwide.



The company, formed in August 2000, has developed a voice-data switch that can be added to existing CDMA-mode (Code Division Multiple Access) wireless networks to provide services such as wireless virtual private networks for businesses, "voice in, data out" systems allowing people to use their voice to request web information that is displayed on their phone, instant voice messaging over cell phones and smoother delivery of streaming video and audio entertainment to handheld devices.



The gateway will be made available directly to CDMA operators in Asia and North America in the second quarter. Samsung Electronics will use Starent's gateway in its CDMA2000 infrastructure offerings, which will be made available in Asia in that quarter. The CDMA market is in excess of $ 1 billion.

The company plans to roll out its GSM 3G interface in six months. "Even though our entry into the market is more toward 2.5G or 3G, all our services are compatible with 2G handsets,'' explains Dahod. "We would make 2G andsets appear like 3G handsets. This is something nobody has done. A platform like this is not available,'' he claimed.



Starent's offshore unit in Pune, Nu-Link (India) Pvt. Ltd is working on the GSM interface. Nu-Link is playing an important role in embedded software development for a European version of Starent's platform.



The company has completed a $22 million second round of equity financing led by Highland Capital Partners, Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners. The venture capitalists, who had earlier jointly funded the company's $10 million first round, also put money into the company in this round. The new round, which closed in August, values the company at a little over $65 million.



Starent is still testing its technology but it has already signed on equipment companies Samsung Electronics of Korea and Eastern Communications of China, to help distribute its products. Dahod says that he expects to have a commercial product for sale by the middle of next year. He expects the market to be big despite the general slowdown in spending in the telecommunications market.



The company is investing in a new facility at Pune for Nu-Link at a cost of Rs 10 crore. It is expected to be ready in the next seven months to house over 40 professionals over the next year.

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