VeriSign Is Betting on Its Tech Edge

"We tend to think of these new services as singles, doubles and home runs," he said. "I would say wireless portability is a clean single."

And what's a home run? It's likely to come from offerings that combine VeriSign's business units -- telecom, security and the domain name registry, Sclavos responds.

VoIP could fit into that category by tapping the synergies between VeriSign's telecom and registry business. VeriSign sold Network Solutions' domain registrar service -- selling new domain names on the Internet. The registrar business, which became VeriSign's after the $16 billion Network Solutions sale in 2000, went for $100 million. That business has been shrinking because of more competition and an end to the Internet land rush during the dot-com boom.

But under a government-approved monopoly, VeriSign will continue to operate the registry -- or directory -- of domain names ending in .com until 2007 and .net until at least 2005. VeriSign receives $6 a year for each domain name ending in .com and .net registered and is responsible for the platform of servers that direct Internet users to the correct address.

As voice telephone calls are moved to the cheaper, more efficient Internet protocol, VeriSign wants to tap its registry and telecom businesses to become the "interoperability hub" that takes a phone number and translates it to an IP address, or determines if it still must be routed over a traditional phone line, explains Sclavos.

VoIP, however, is only in the early stages and probably two to three years away before it generates meaningful revenue, he acknowledged.

Still, when it arrives, VeriSign will incur little additional cost for building out VoIP services because it will ride off the directory infrastructure the company has spent the past three years building for the.com and .net registry, said Sclavos.