TSI, VeriSign Focus on Wireless

As carriers embrace next-generation data services on LANs and WANs, the companies that service them are responding in kind.

Telecommunication services company TSI Telecommunication Services Inc. is changing its name to show it wants to be more than a telecom services company. Last week, TSI announced it will be called Syniverse Technologies Inc., a name picked from more than 2,000 candidates, said officials. “We continue to bring together synergy and the universe,” said Ed Evans, CEO of the Tampa, Fla., company. “We are no longer serving just the telecommunications market.”

Most recently, the company was known for providing local-number-portability tools to five of the top six wireless carriers in the United States. Now the company wants to broaden its focus and its brand to include data services such as roaming among Wi-Fi wireless LAN hot spots and WANs, and various messaging technologies such as Short Message Service.

Meanwhile, VeriSign Inc. has realigned its business to focus on customer payments for wireless services, something customers say is just as important as the services themselves.

“For the enterprise, the handsets, roaming and higher bandwidth take a back seat to good pricing and account management,” said Kevin Wilson, product line manager for desktop hardware at Duke Energy Corp., in Charlotte, N.C., and an eWEEK Corporate Partner.

Last month, VeriSign teamed with BearingPoint Inc. on a new billing-and-payment platform for wireless carriers. The partnership combines VeriSigns existing platform with BearingPoints Infonova platform. VeriSign already offers integrated pre- and postpaid billing; BearingPoint adds subscriber monitoring services and makes it easier for carriers to modify plans. The updated billing services will help the company expand into new markets such as voice over IP and new networks such as 802.11 (Wi-Fi) wireless LANs and 802.16 (WiMax broadband), which carriers have been forced to embrace.

“802.11 and 802.16 are very disruptive to both wire-line and wireless companies,” said Vernon Irvin, executive vice president of communications services at VeriSign, in Mountain View, Calif. The company last month also announced that its signaling network now supports Global System for Mobile Communications technology.