February 16, 2010

Neustar Touts Wireless Chops

The search for smart ways to make up the gap between subscriber revenue and demands on broadband wireless infrastructure is proceeding in earnest.

This week’s venue for exploring that challenge is the Mobile World Congress 2010 (MWC) in Barcelona Spain.

“As in previous years, there will be new handset technology, LTE and infrastructure expansion,” Steve Edwards, SVP converged addressing at Neustar, said in a MWC preview last week. “But this year we’re going to see a lot more on specific applications and services.”

Neustar is known for its domain name systems (DNS), electronic numbering (ENUM) and risk management expertise. (Time Warner Cable uses the company to minimize fraud and bad debt. Click here for more.) Believing that its core competence in providing interoperability across complex ecosystems applies in the wireless space, it is launching a Mobile IP platform.

“The acceleration of 4G in access networks (entails) a complementary expansion in the core to support a whole new portfolio of services,” Edwards said.

The company was scheduled to showcase an application using 2D barcodes and mobile marketing yesterday. (Two-dimensional barcodes use symbols rather than bars to represent data that machines can read optically.)

Those wondering what barcode scanning has to do with mobile consumer devices may want to recall the iPhone mantra. Yes, there’s an app for that. Neustar is making one available for MCW attendees who wish to participate in its Visa card demo. (Click here for one offered by the company Shape Services.)

As it has in other cases, most recently with the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) LLC, Neustar is developing a clearinghouse to pull together all the players in the mobile barcode space.

At MWC, Neustar also is addressing mobile Internet applications and services architecture more broadly. It has additional expertise in mobile messaging, having bought UK-based Followap three years ago.

The company is now routing 1 billion IMs a month, Edwards said.

– Jonathan Tombes