Local engineers target world’s top markets

Cebuano developed telecommunication system called INF, is set to penetrate the leading markets in the world including the United States, China, Japan, Europe and Austalia, after it could get its patent anytime this year.

Owned by Next Generation Information Exchange or NEXTiX Systems company, INF is a service that integrates a hardware/software platform capable of incorporating computer intelligence into any telephone system, either cellular or landline, allowing it to have infinite capabilities. 

In an interview with NEXTiX president Bobby Suson, he said that the product, which recently got an award from the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) during this year’s e-Services Philippines (ESP) Awarding Ceremony in Manila, is going to conquer the US market, which is considered as the trend setter in the telecommunication’s system technology.

Developed by a pool of engineers, who are graduates from local universities like Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT), this product comes in a very small package but can compete with the “big boys” in telecommunication system like Siemens and other INF works like a PABX.

“We are waiting for the approval of our international patent in US, China, Europe, Australia and Japan. After which, we are going to deploy this product initially to these markets,” Suson said.

NEXTiX developed an open source hardware and software system that boasts of a very intelligent CLIENT / BASE (server) link architecture.

The INF system architecture is similar to Star Trek's “borg”. Any kind of asterisk-based product can be assimilated into INF system, be it an embedded INF, a medium-sized asterisk installation for a small office, a full blown enterprise-grade asterisk server or even a hobby system.

The system also boasts of a hardware module with a 4/8 port where a special firmware based on Linux was developed specifically for the INF platform. INF was designed with stability and capacity in mind; maintaining these while keeping the cost minimal was a success in itself.  The INF hardware is already certified by the international Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

 The company has maintained its technology-portal office in UP Diliman, for the embedded technology requirement, but the research and development (R&D) office is located in Cebu.

As of date of submission, major government agencies and corporations have already signed up for the service including RCPI, UN International Rice Research Institute, DSWD, USAID, Sun Cellular, and Digitel. 

Because of its size, Suson said the company has an advantage in terms of pricing, as deployment cost is very minimal.  – Ehda M. Dagooc