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VeriSign’s Messaging and Mobile Media Division Shatters Records

In Latest Quarterly Index, VeriSign’s Messaging and Mobile Media Registers Strong Growth in Asia Pacific

India, June 10th, 2009 – Mobile messaging volumes continue to shatter records, according to the latest quarterly index of mobile messaging statistics compiled by the Messaging and Mobile Media Division of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world.

“Growth in mobile messaging volumes remains a consistent bright spot in the mobile wireless environment,” said Basavaraj Nagaraj, Senior Manager of Product Management, for VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division. “As consumers and enterprises increasingly rely on mobile messaging to stay connected anytime, anywhere, the mobile industry relies on VeriSign to ensure that those messages reach their intended destination. We are making the investments necessary to deliver the reach, reliability and scalability needed for 2009.”

Strong growth in Asia Pacific sustained

Across Asia Pacific, VeriSign saw an approximate 30 percent increase in the total number of international mobile messages sent and received over its network in Q1 2009 from Q4 2008. The company also saw rapid growth in the volume of mobile messaging traffic in this region, especially in South Asia where the number of mobile messages delivered by VeriSign jumped almost tenfold that quarter.

This significantly underscores mobile messaging as an increasing means for people to communicate across borders, especially in South and Southeast Asia where there is a large migrant worker population. To this end, VeriSign announced that it has been chosen by PT Indosat Tbk in Indonesia and Warid Telecom International Ltd. in Bangladesh to provide international messaging to more destinations.

Other contributing drivers for the growth in Asia Pacific include festive holidays such as the Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day, the high mobile penetration rates in emerging markets in Southeast and Central Asia, and reduced costs for international mobile messaging in Oceania.

Leading in reliability and global reach

In Q1 2009, VeriSign’s combined mobile messaging networks enabled an average of approximately 932 million messages per day globally. This is an 18.5 percent increase from the previous quarter and a remarkable 96 percent rise over Q1 2008. In total, VeriSign delivered 82.3 Billion P2P and over 1.6 Billion A2P messages in Q1 2009.

The VeriSign® Inter-Carrier MMS and PictureMail platforms also continue to experience rigorous growth in MMS traffic. Compared to the first quarter of 2008, MMS and PictureMail volumes jumped 130 percent and 84 percent respectively. In total, VeriSign delivered more than 1.1 billion MMS messages in Q1 2009.

The quarter also produced a healthy rise in mobile media/mobile content messaging volumes through VeriSign’s Mobile Delivery Gateway (MDG). Driven in part by the addition of new mobile content providers and an increase in mobile content provider market activity, VeriSign reported a 27 percent increase in Premium SMS transactions year over year. VeriSign’s MDG platform also reached a monthly all-time high in retail sales, which translated to a 35 percent rise from the previous quarter. With industry leading reliability, the MDG platform has achieved its sixth straight month of 100 percent availability.

Enabling mobile messaging to more businesses and consumers worldwide

With more enterprises turning to the mobile channel to better serve customers, VeriSign Mobile Enterprise Services (VMES) responded to the growing interest in A2P enterprise applications as evident by an 88% year-over-year growth rate of messages delivered through its network while financial services in particular drove a 63% increase in messaging traffic from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009. Financial institutions such as Western Union, U.S. Bank, Fifth Third Bank, and Huntington National use VeriSign’s mobile financial services to improve their customers overall experience through alerts and other value-add mobile services. The company also most recently signed a deal with ICICI Bank, India’s largest private bank, to use VeriSign’s International Messaging Alert Services.

A recipient of the Frost & Sullivan 2009 Award for North American Messaging-based Mobile Banking Solution of the Year, VeriSign’s Messaging and Mobile Media Division delivers mobile messaging for 6 of the top 10 banks, 3 of the top 5 financial institutions, and global leaders in payments and money transfer services.

VeriSign’s Messaging and Mobile Media Division delivers messages on behalf of carriers and content providers around the world. VeriSign’s combined mobile messaging networks (P2P and A2P) connect to more than 700 carriers in over 200 countries and reach more than 3 billion wireless subscribers. VeriSign offers one of the most robust and reliable mobile messaging delivery engines across carrier, enterprise, and media/entertainment networks, generating billions of dollars in revenue for its customers. Together with RealNetworks, Inc.®, it powers inter-carrier mobile messaging for 8 of the top 10 wireless carriers in North America and other major operators throughout the world.

To view the full index, please visit /in/static/mmi-q1-09.pdf.

* Includes Inter-carrier SMS messaging and interoperability services that are provided by VeriSign, together with RealNetworks, Inc.®, under the service name “Metcalf”.

About VeriSign Messaging and Mobile Media

VeriSign Messaging and Mobile Media is a division of VeriSign, the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world. Through this business unit, VeriSign provides global application services that reliably deliver short-messages (SMS), multimedia messages (MMS), and mobile content across wireless operators and mobile devices throughout the world. As a leader in mobile messaging, mobile banking and mobile content delivery, VeriSign offers a broad portfolio of mobile infrastructure and delivery services. Offering reliable delivery, a worldwide presence, and rapid and effective deployment, VeriSign has built a trusted and respected brand with global mobile operators, media content providers and enterprises. The reach, reliability and value add of VeriSign services enable these companies to capitalize on the rapidly growing messaging and media content markets.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) is the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world. Billions of times each day, VeriSign helps companies and consumers all over the world engage in communications and commerce with confidence. Additional news and information about the company is available at www.verisign.com/in/

Contacts

VeriSign Media Relations:
Nidhi Chhabra, nichhabra@verisign.com, +91 981 120 5937

Investor Relations:
Nancy Fazioli, nfazioli@verisign.com, +1 650-426-5146