VeriSign to expand clearinghouse services region-wide

The US' telecoms software and services company VeriSign (Nasdaq: VRSN) plans to use its recent acquisition of a Brazilian telecoms clearinghouse to expand services across the region, VeriSign sales senior vice president Philip Fellows told BNamericas. The expansion into Latin America will help VeriSign meet its growth goals, he said. The US$16mn purchase of UNC from Brazilian incumbent Embratel (NYSE: EMT) was a necessary step to offering regional fixed line services. "We couldn't offer wireline clearing in Latin America without this acquisition," Fellows said. VeriSign expects UNC to retain all its customers, including the largest, Embratel, he said, and wants to steal customers from its main competitor, ClearTech, which is controlled by the US' IT services company EDS, Brazilian telecoms research firm CPqD and engineering company DBA Engenharia de Sistemas. ClearTech's main clients are Telemar, GVT and Telefonica. The fixed line segment is still appealing to VeriSign, though its focus today is wireless data, Fellows said. In Latin America, VeriSign already provides services to mobile operators in the region through its Pan-American Roaming Consortium (PARC), which manages roaming agreements for all 35 members and settlement services for about half of them. The company does have wireless plans for the Brazilian market, and plans to launch services for short message service (SMS) to help with agreements between companies, he said. Signing SMS agreements between competing operators is a challenge around the world, and is not a problem inherent to Latin America, he added. "SMS growth is shooting straight up in Latin America," Fellows said. The company is betting on the youth segment, which are the heaviest SMS users. "SMS as a social tool will become a business tool," he said. In the future VeriSign wants to corner the m-commerce security market, Fellows said. Digital security solutions are one of VeriSign's main lines of business, alongside telecoms solutions and Internet domain name authorizations. In Brazil in the security business VeriSign has a stake in a local company called CertiSign. VeriSign has no more acquisitions in Latin America planned at the moment, but is keeping its eyes peeled for new opportunities, Fellows said, adding that the company's core markets are Brazil and Mexico.