VERISIGN: "It is the right time to leverage telecom market in India"

VeriSign is known for authentication and security services, why telecom?

Communications today is the fastest growing market, and VeriSign has been
offering communication services for a while, where we facilitate around 80 lakh
SMSs daily basis. Over the last ten years, there has been a dramatic convergence
of voice and data and the breakdown of barriers between different types of
service providers. Service providers, including traditional and non-traditional
carriers recognize the potential of this evolution are shifting their operations
to address these transformations. It is no longer simply about reaching out to
someone, the evolving communications era must allow end users to find, connect,
secure, and transact using a variety of devices over a variety of networks.

How does India feature in your activities?

In the next five years, top 10 operators will be from India. It is the right
time to leverage telecom market in India. In India, the promise of converged
technologies goes beyond superimposing voice services over IP networks. It
involves unifying voice, data, wireless, public, and private networks into an
integrated, end-to-end infrastructure for service delivery. We are going to have
our marketing and sales operations based in Delhi. With the growing opportunity,
we are very positive about our offerings and services in India.

What are your service offerings and who are your customers?

VeriSign offers intelligent infrastructure services that carriers can easily and
quickly allow their subscribers to find, secure, connect and transact business,
commerce, or entertainment pursuits over mobile devices.

Our IP Connect family of services are targeted at traditional
telecommunications carriers, cable operators, service providers and enterprises.

What are some of the VCS initiatives and what has been its impact on the
revenues?

Telecommunications division combined with the new mobile content business
had a very positive impact on VeriSign's third quarter performance.

Tata Teleservices will use VeriSign's infrastructure to allow its
subscribers to communicate via two-way SMS. Another initiative called Protocol
Interworking Services (PIS) is for GSM networks. GSM networks in America use
ANSI-based roaming protocols, whereas GSM networks in the rest of the world
typically use protocols based on ITU standards. VeriSign's PIS for GSM
operators allows these varying networks to interoperate by providing the
appropriate protocol and routing address conversions. In another agreement with
International Mobile Communications (IMC), we have introduced the IMC Roaming
Service Bureau, allowing CDMA/TDMA operators to expand their roaming footprint.

Minu Sirsalewala