New Alliance Extends VeriSign Communications Services Presence Into Asia; Expands CITIC 1616 Portfolio of Telecom Services

OLYMPIA, WA, March 13, 2009 -- VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) Communications Services, a leading provider of mobile roaming services in North America, and CITIC 1616, a leading telecom services hub in Asia, announced an alliance that enables both companies to jointly deliver valuable roaming and clearing services to Asian operators. Prior to today's agreement, service provider choice for specialized roaming services was extremely limited. The formation of this alliance will also provide mobile operators in the region with greater selection for services functionality.

The agreement includes the roaming and clearing portfolio of VeriSign including services such as: Cellular Intercarrier Billing Exchange Roamer (CIBER) and Transferred Account Procedure (TAP) Clearing - Settlement and Exchange Service; and Intelligent Message Processing for Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) signaling interoperability.

Roaming usage and consumption of new roaming services such as mobile data continue to grow rapidly and are forecast to nearly double over the next five years. Subscriber growth is expected to slow over the same period, making revenue streams from roaming services increasingly significant to mobile operators.

"This alliance with VeriSign Communications Services enables us to deliver a new set of complementary services to the mobile marketplace in Asia," CITIC 1616 CTO Sutton Cheung said.

David Sitomer, vice president of Business Development and Strategy for VeriSign, said, "Our agreement with CITIC 1616 is an important part of our strategy to serve the Asia Pacific marketplace. This alliance will, at last, provide mobile operators with local sales and support, as well as service provider choice for specialized roaming services."

For example, VeriSign will provide mission critical services such as:

-- CIBER and TAP Clearing - Settlement and Exchange Service: an intelligent infrastructure service that allows carriers to track and analyze their wholesale financial position for roaming subscriber usage with roaming partners via a Web-based reporting interface.

-- Intelligent Message Processing for CDMA signaling interoperability: an advanced centralized solution that addresses each element of establishing and maintaining a seamless global roaming service. This service gives subscribers access to the same features and security when they travel abroad as they have in their home areas as well as providing support for international roamers visiting local service areas.

-- Connectivity and Transport Services for voice and data roaming.

The joint offering is available to mobile operators in Asia via consultation with the CITIC 1616 Sales organization and can be arranged by submitting an inquiry to citic1616.com/en_contactus.php.

About VeriSign Communications Services

VeriSign Communications Services is a division of VeriSign, the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world. VeriSign Communications Services is an inter-carrier service provider offering extensive connectivity, coverage and reliability with a full suite of telco-grade services including SS7, roaming and clearing, number portability, calling name, and IP registry services.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) is the trusted provider of Internet and communications 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 verisign.com.

About CITIC 1616 Holdings Limited

CITIC 1616 Holdings Limited (CITIC 1616) as established in 1999 is now public and listed on the Main Board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange with stock code 1883. CITIC 1616 is one of the leading telecommunications hubs to provide telecom services in the Asia Pacific including Voice Service, Mobile SMS and other value-added services (Signaling Transit, Prepaid Roaming and VAS applications), Data Service and Telecom solutions to telecom carriers, mobile operators and ISP. Additional news and information about the company is available at citic1616.com.

Source: VeriSign, Inc. (Marketwire)