Bharti Airtel - Airtel Signs with VeriSign®

Bharti Airtel Ltd on January 03, 2008 has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with VeriSign, Inc., the leading provider of Internet infrastructure for the networked world. The companies agreed to form a strategic market partnership to jointly launch best-in-class security services, to deliver VeriSign's identity protection, managed security and fraud detection services, and to support the development of the next-generation Internet infrastructure in the Indian market.

Under this arrangement, Bharti Airtel will become VeriSign's Strategic Market Partner and will deploy VeriSign's world class services in India, Bharti Airtel's strong in-country support and expertise. These services aim to revolutionise the way enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses, and consumers harness the power of the Internet and develop new applications that leverage the convergence of mobile and internet platforms.

Additionally, as a part of the partnership, Bharti Airtel will utilise a number of VeriSign's capabilities, including VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) services to significantly improve the internal capabilities of its own infrastructure and to better serve its growing customer base.

Dr. Jai Menon, Director - IT & Innovation and Group Chief Information Officer of Airtel, said, "The partnership with VeriSign demonstrates our intent to create a globally-admired telecommunications company. Our combined strength will provide the Indian market with the latest Internet and IP infrastructure services, strongly supported by our local resources. We look forward to seeing the benefits of these services internally and for our customers."