INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - JUNE 1st - JUNE 30th - 2008
VERISIGN, AIRTEL IN 3-YR PACT
Bharti Airtel and US-based networks security major VeriSign have entered into an exclusive threeyear arrangement where both companies will jointly develop specific security solutions for Indian corporates. Both companies said that they will make about $100 million (Rs 400 crore) in revenue initially.
In December, it was reported that Bharti and VeriSign would sign an MoU under which the latter will extend its digital identity protection and fraud detection services to the Indian telco, which will then pass it on its subscribers, employees and partners.
“We are pioneering this with Bharti in India. VeriSign already has a strong development centre in Bangalore. We will jointly bring out secure products for the small and medium business segment. We want to offer all our customers a safe platform, be it mobile or internet,” VeriSign’s global president and CEO Willam A Roper Jr said.
As part of the deal, VeriSign has also set up a Regional Internet Resolution Site (RIRS) in India. VeriSign is the sole global registrar for all ‘.net’ and ‘.com’ websites. The company’s decision to move the RIRS (also called a server) to India, implies that all websites which have a ‘.com’ or ‘.net’ will not be impacted in the event of a global crisis. Earlier this year, three undersea cables — FLAG and FALCON, owned by Reliance Communications and the Se-Me-We-4 cable on which both Bharti and VSNL have capacity — were damaged near West Asia sending internet traffic in the country out of gear. “In future, if such an event were to occur, it will not impact any of the ‘.com’ or ‘.net’ sites as the server now resides in India...,VeriSign’s CTO Kent Silva said.
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