[governance] What Will Happen [@ NARALO/ALAC/CCNSO?]

[yehudakatz at mailinator.com]

Found an older article that explains Nuestar's stratgies:
http://www.webwereld.nl/articles/41063/neustar-ceo-touts-dns-voip-plans.html

NeuStar CEO touts DNS, VOIP plans
by Carolyn Duffy Marsan 
 
Dinsdag 9 mei 2006, 10:33 - NeuStar, the provider of telephone and Internet
directory services to the telecom industry, is on a roll. In February, the
Sterling, Va., company reported eye-popping financials for 2005, with revenue
up 47 percent and net income up 22 percent. In April, NeuStar purchased
UltraDNS, which offers managed DNS services to leading Web sites such as
Amazon.com and Match.com. Meanwhile, NeuStar is developing a service designed
to ease VOIP integration issues for carriers. Network World Senior Editor
Carolyn Duffy Marsan recently interviewed Jeff Ganek, chairman and CEO of
NeuStar, about these developments. Here are excerpts from their conversation. 

How does UltraDNS fit in NeuStar's strategy? 

It turns out that our products are very similar. All networks in North America
depend on NeuStar for routing voice calls. Internet and IP networks depend on
UltraDNS for routing DNS messages. We do the same things: We are both trusted
clearinghouses of directory services for all networks. 

What are your plans for UltraDNS' technology and staff? 
All of the senior management are staying. NeuStar's reason for buying UltraDNS
is that it is a very strong organization. They have great technology and
operations. They run their systems in a highly reliable fashion 24-by-7, and
they have a sales organization that's producing great growth. We fully intend
to keep all the employees. And we expect to expand the operation. We think they
can exceed beyond what they are already achieving. 

What plans do you have for new services from UltraDNS? 
UltraDNS expands NeuStar's capabilities in DNS and IP. Together, NeuStar and
UltraDNS are the routing directories for more than 25 top-level domains,
including .org, .biz,, .us and .mobi. Together, I expect we will be as
essential to IP traffic as NeuStar is to all-voice traffic in North America. We
already have products that NeuStar has announced that are complemented by
UltraDNS offerings. One great example is SIP-IX. NeuStar announced SIP-IX in
the fourth quarter of last year. SIP-IX is a standard that has been accepted by
all the players in the industry as essentially the signaling and administrative
function for VOIP, and we think it is a groundbreaking offering. The existing
UltraDNS infrastructure -- their global DNS network -- is a strong platform for
the distribution and accessibility of SIP services. 

What is the status of SIP-IX here in the United States? 
SIP is going to be to the Internet what Signaling System 7 [SS7] has been to
the voice world. We've been the lead proponent of SIP-IX, and we've been
participating at the IETF in its definition. We've created a platform that
provides a broad range of SIP functions, and we signed exclusive agreements
with Internet exchange points around the globe to exclusively put NeuStar's
SIP-IX platform in their data centers to make SIP functionality available by
the transaction to any and all networks that converge at those network exchange
points. Internet exchange points that handle more than 70 percent of the
world's Internet traffic have signed on to NeuStar's SIP-IX platform. 

What will SIP-IX mean to enterprises? 
Large enterprises have very complex IP links all around the world provided by
different ISPs. The SIP-IX platform, because it is positioned in the Internet
exchange points, is accessible to all the ISPs. So every enterprise, whether
they own their own transport facilities and connect directly to the ISP or
whether they use a network provider, can get compatible, worldwide end-to-end
SIP functionality across their own transport facilities and across those of all
the ISPs within their corporate enterprise networks. 

When will SIP-IX be commercially available in the United States? 
It's on a trial basis. It'll be operational before the end of June. 

What is the status of NeuStar's work in Enum (an emerging standard that
translates telephone numbers into corresponding Internet addresses)? 
NeuStar has an Enum capability up and operating today. It's going to be a
feature on the SIP-IX platform, so it's easily accessible to all enterprises,
all carriers and all ISPs. Frankly, we're just waiting for the market to catch
up with the technology and the product that's available today. 

How does the UltraDNS acquisition position NeuStar against VeriSign? 

We rarely compete against VeriSign. VeriSign is a large customer of ours. They
bought Illuminet, a large SS7 provider, and NeuStar's local number portability
is the killer application of the SS7 network. VeriSign doesn't do any of the
telephone number directory work that we do. In the DNS space, they do .com and
.net. We do different domains, but we don't compete with each other. We have
similar operations, but our DNS directory is four or five times larger than
VeriSign's. 

Does NeuStar have any other acquisitions planned? 

The market's need for directory services is growing very quickly, and to the
extent that market needs require it we intend to expand the clearinghouse
services that we provide. Mergers and acquisitions are a great way to do that. 
NeuStar acquired Foretec in December and took over the secretariat function for
the IETF. How is that going? 

We think it is going very, very well. That's the feedback we get from the IETF.
NeuStar is all about open standards. We are all about the work that happens at
the IETF to establish the technical foundation that allows for
interoperability. The IETF needed help in doing the secretariat work -- the
administrative work of the regular IETF meetings and the background paperwork
-- and NeuStar is happy to step up and do that, because it's another dimension
of how we are dedicated to operating as a neutral third party between rivalrous
network providers. Foretec is a small business. It's not an entity that is
going to provide material growth or profits. But it is a critical function that
the industry needs, and NeuStar is doing it in that light. 

How do you explain NeuStar's financial success given the overall weakness in
the U.S. telecom industry? 

It turns out that networks are using [our product] for more purposes than any
of them had anticipated. Despite the fact that we have lowered our prices
several times, volumes of their usage have continued to exceed NeuStar's
projections. What was originally a local number portability directory put in
place so end users could keep their telephone numbers when they moved is now a
dynamic call routing system that network operators use to manage the
architectures of their networks. So every time there is a change in the
technology of the network -- such as going from the old voice to the new IP
technology -- every time there's a larger merger and acquisition among the
telcos, every time there's a change in the architecture of the menu of end user
services that the carriers are offering, the carriers rely on NeuStar to
reconfigure their networks. All of that drives very high volumes.
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