Denis O’Brien’s Digicel has a large imprint in the Caribbean but one country that escaped the embrace was The Bahamas. The population of c.400,000 people is dispersed across 62 islands in the archipelago, and Digicel couldn’t see the business case for planting the flag.

Aliv thought otherwise a few years ago when a mobile licence was up for grabs. When the licence was secured, Digicel veteran Alan Bates (48) joined the Aliv team to assist with the masts roll-out, and the brand is now doing well.

After more than a decade working in the tropics, Bates returned to Ireland to work with another O’Brien venture, Actavo, and then found himself commuting from Gorey to Nassau on the Aliv project.

With his children growing up, Bates decided it was time to put down roots in his native Wicklow, and Hubbcat was established in Kilcoole Enterprise Park in 2019. “We learned so much around the world and we wanted to see if we could set up something here in Ireland,” says Bates.

Hubbcat is a proper startup, complete with chairman, CFO, CIO, CTO, CCO, investment director, operations director etc. Its main line of business is ‘push to talk’ using 3G and 4G mobile phone LTE networks.

In Association with

It works like two-way radio without the distance limitations of radio, and can also handle data and group communications for large organisations. A personal mobile phone can be used on the systems and Hubbcat also offers a range of bespoke devices designed for durability.

Hubbcat partners with Mobile Tornado, a small UK plc, for some backend services. Target sectors include pharmaceutical, private security, government and logistics. Central control is a key selling point, especially to support lone workers.

“It's very intelligent technology and we've great take-up in Ireland and in a number of overseas markets,” says Bates. “We’re the service provider on the front end and manage the sales and marketing, service provision, and customer relationship. We offer other solutions in addition to Mobile Tornado.”

Big Brother

One such solution is a Big Brother offering developed by Aliv at the behest of Bahamian authorities. That’s a GPS geo-fence to check that people who are supposed to be restricting their movements due to Covid are actually doing so.

From Kilcoole, Hubbcat can erect this virtual fence around any property, or even a room in that property, via an app downloaded to the self-isolating individual’s mobile device. Deployed in the Bahamas from April 2020, the technology has been used to monitor the movements of c.15,000 people, and Bates is pitching for Irish authorities to adopt the same solution in Ireland.

Bates insists that his firm is offering more than a virtual prison. “The isolated individual can be contacted from a care perspective, to check if they need help, and how they’re feeling. If the quarantine area is breached, the person can be contacted immediately,” he adds.

Unless of course the person just dumps their phone. According to Bates, compliance with the system has been c.90% in The Bahamas. “It’s a cost-effective solution where instead of having to devote resources to drive out and spot check on people, it can be done instantly. There's no silver bullet, but if this could be one of the strings in the bow to fight against Covid we'd be happy to play our part.”

Photo: Alan Bates (right) with Hubbcat CTO Niall O'Toole. (Pic: Maxwells)