Businesses Can Now Onboard and Protect Mobile Customers in China, Brazil and Other Emerging Markets with TeleSign Mobile Identity Solutions

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–TeleSign (www.telesign.com), the leading provider of customer identity and engagement solutions, today announced enhanced coverage of mobile identity services in China, Brazil, and other emerging markets. International businesses can now leverage TeleSign’s solutions to more securely onboard new customers, prevent account takeover and registration fraud, and optimize the user experience in new markets.

New consent-based data enables businesses to verify customer names and  mobile subscriber data in second-fastest growing economy in the world

Los Angeles, CA – July 31, 2018 – TeleSign (www.telesign.com), the leading provider of single-platform global communications and trusted identity data solutions, today announced the availability of trusted identity data in China as part of its leading data-intelligence API, PhoneID. With this consent-based data, companies can now overcome identity and privacy barriers and harness the full buying power of one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

With more than 1.5 billion mobile subscribers, and with Chinese consumers set to spend $6.4 Trillion by 2024[1], China offers immense growth opportunities to today’s digital business. However, a complex market full of identity and privacy barriers has made it difficult for businesses outside of China to properly verify and engage Chinese consumers. Today that changes as TeleSign begins offering authoritative mobile carrier data directly from China’s three mobile carriers (China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom) through its PhoneID API add-ons Contact Match and Subscriber Status. This data enables businesses to verify names and understand more about the subscriber in order to engage with the Chinese market with greater security and trust.

“Conducting business in China has long been a challenge for any company outside of the country, where the lack of verifiable identity data has made it nearly impossible to conduct business with Chinese consumers safely and securely,” says Chris Andrews, Senior Director of Product Management, Data Products. “Today we are opening up this market to businesses around the globe as we introduce consent-based, authoritative identity data from China’s mobile carriers, that enables businesses around the globe to verify identities, block fraud and grow revenues.”

The addition of China data gives TeleSign an unrivaled level of coverage for global trusted identity data. Today, PhoneID offers ‘Know Your Customer’ data in more than 230 countries and territories, while add-ons Contact Match and Subscriber Status offer essential contact and phone-intelligence data on consumers in the United States, Canada, and China. Additional countries including Brazil, Australia, Switzerland, India, France, UK, Spain, South Africa, South Korea and others will be coming soon.

TeleSign’s PhoneID API offers add-ons that provide a wide range of real-time, actionable phone number insights and user identity data to help prevent fraud and improve the customer experience. These add-ons help strengthen and validate the user verification process, reduce fake accounts, inform risk models, and improve conversions and accuracy of collected information. The PhoneID API cleans and reformats a submitted phone number and instantly returns phone type, telecom carrier name and phone registration information.

To learn more, and to get started today, please visit: https://www.telesign.com/products/phone-id/.

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About TeleSign:

The world’s largest digital enterprises turn to TeleSign to deliver on the promise of a better customer experience. As the leading provider of single-platform global communications and trusted identity data solutions, TeleSign APIs leverage an unrivaled number of direct carrier connections around the globe to enable businesses to better protect and engage their customers. Fueled by unprecedented access to real-time phone, behavior and user analytics, TeleSign is powering the next wave of digital experience. 

Media Contact:

Eric Lammerding

elammerding@telesign.com

(310) 740-9676

[1] https://money.cnn.com/2015/11/19/news/economy/china-consumer-spending/index.html

TeleSign app allows marketers to enrich customer journey with SMS-based marketing campaigns, alerts, reminders and notifications 

Los Angeles, CA – March 19, 2018 – TeleSign (www.telesign.com) today announced it will bring its global SMS messaging capabilities to Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing. With TeleSign’s SMS app, Dynamics 365 for Marketing users can seamlessly send SMS-based marketing campaigns including alerts, reminders and notifications to increase engagement, usage and brand awareness.

TeleSign’s SMS app allows anyone to build real-time communications into new or existing web and mobile applications, and scale their usage as needed. These messages can take the form of alerts, reminders, notifications, invites, two-way communications, promotional campaigns, and other marketing messages sent directly from TeleSign’s SMS add-on within Dynamics 365. This differentiated customer experience leads to increased user engagement, higher satisfaction rates, stronger customer lifetime values (CLV) and faster growth.

“It’s projected that 80 percent of business will be communicating with customers via cloud communications by 2020,” said Aled Miles, Chief Executive Officer at TeleSign. “Microsoft Dynamics 365 customers now have the power of TeleSign SMS to easily add messaging capabilities and connect with their customers the way they want to be engaged.”

Sona Venkat, General Manager, Microsoft Corp. added, “We’re excited to have TeleSign offer businesses the ability to provide timely, personalized information to their users via SMS, enhancing the customer journey and enabling digital transformation. We’re confident these scenarios will drive tremendous value for our mutual customers.”

With TeleSign’s SMS app, Dynamics 365 for Marketing customers can communicate more effectively with their audiences and provide a critical customer touchpoint throughout their lifecycle using SMS. Features include:

• Global, Direct-to-Carrier Routes
  • Connect directly with hundreds of carriers around the world for optimized speed, reliability, and high SMS deliverability, in over 200 countries and territories and in 87 different languages
• Smart Message Splitting and Long Message Support
  • Prevent the breaking of critical pieces of information such as URLs, email addresses and SMS message splitting over 160 characters (up to 10 messages/1600 characters) to ensure messages are delivered and viewed as intended.
• Inbound SMS for Interactive Two-Way Communications
  • Send and receive global text messages to listen, engage and provide support to customers. Not available in all markets. Contact TeleSign for specific availability.
• URL Shortener and User Activity Tracking
  • A free service provided by Telesign that shortens long URLs into fewer characters to make links easier to send via SMS. Save valuable characters for calls-to-action and gain insight into end-user behavior with activity tracking of click-throughs and conversions.
• Worldwide Compliance Support from Telesign
  • Telesign provides free regulatory assistance to help users mitigate Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) risks and adhere to worldwide content compliance.

TeleSign’s SMS app will be available for download in Microsoft AppSource when Dynamics 365 for Marketing launches to general availability. To learn more about TeleSign and its communications offerings, please visit www.telesign.com.

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About TeleSign

TeleSign is a communications platform as a service (CPaaS) company, founded on security. Since 2005, TeleSign has been a trusted partner to 20 of the top 25 global websites and mobile applications, helping secure billions of end-user accounts. Today, TeleSign’s data-driven, cloud communications platform is changing the way businesses engage with customers and prevent fraud.

Find out more on www.telesign.com and follow us @TeleSign for more information.

Media Contacts:

Eric Lammerding

TeleSign

310-740-9676

elammerding@telesign.com

Businesses using SMS, Voice, other Cloud Communications/CPaaS channels report higher revenue growth, customer satisfaction

Los Angeles, CA – September 26, 2017 – TeleSign, the world’s first end-to-end communications platform as a service (CPaaS) company, today released, Customer Communications Report: How Businesses Use Cloud Communications to Fuel Growth. The report provides key insights into how digital transformation is reshaping the communications landscape and driving businesses to adopt cloud communications/CPaaS for customer engagement.

Of the 500 customer communications stakeholders surveyed, 87 percent reported that communicating via SMS/text, voice and other cloud communications channels is vital to their companies’ success. For companies that have already adopted cloud communications, nearly twice as many report exceptionally high revenue growth rates (20 percent or above) than those that do not use cloud communications. Additionally, 93 percent of cloud communications users report that embedding communications into their web and mobile apps led to higher customer satisfaction.

“We believe business survival is tied to the ability to engage customers in delightful experiences where, when, and how they want to be reached,” said Aled Miles, CEO of TeleSign. “The world’s leading brands trust TeleSign’s communications platform to provide customers with seamless, right on-time experiences – whether it’s alerting that your driver has arrived, confirming your vacation rental, or receiving your movie tickets right on your mobile phone. The findings are conclusive that businesses using cloud communications to engage customers are seeing higher customer satisfaction and exceeding financial objectives.”

Digital Transformation Driving Cloud Communications Adoption

Today, 99 percent of businesses report being in the middle of digital transformation (using mobile connectivity, cloud consumption, and self-service channels to achieve better business results), yet only 29 percent have reached advanced stages. Of companies still in early stages of this transformation, 64 percent are struggling to meet the demands of real-time communications and 60 percent are not meeting customer expectations of 24/7 communication availability.

Cloud communications platforms enable businesses to embed real-time communications features (such as SMS, voice, push notifications and more) into their web and mobile apps, without the need for backend infrastructure or interfaces. According to this new report, the primary use case for cloud communications today is sending alerts, notifications and reminders, followed by sending marketing messages, enabling two-way communications, streamlining account registration, and protecting accounts with two-factor authentication.

Interestingly, twice as many companies that have achieved advanced digital transformation use cloud communications to engage customers versus those that are in early stages of digital transformation (43 percent vs. 20 percent).

How Cloud Communications Improves the Customer Experience

Businesses today are turning to cloud communications for a variety of reasons, led by the ability to help them improve the customer experience and deliver customized user experiences. Business leaders further report that once adopted, cloud communications offer an impressive list of benefits, including:

• Better customer service (65%)
• More effective communications (59%)
• Higher customer satisfaction (59%)
• Improved user experience (56%)
• Higher customer retention (52%)
• Increased sales (46%)
• Positive brand reputation (41%)
• Increased competitive advantage (38%)

Many of these benefits arise due to the fact that businesses are able to communicate with their customers when and how they prefer. In fact, 32 percent of companies that use cloud communications say their customers are very satisfied with the channels they use to communicate with them versus just 15 percent of those that don’t use cloud communications.

Cloud Communications Adoption Expected to Reach 80 percent by 2020

Although the cloud communications market is emergent, 32 percent of businesses are currently using a cloud-based communications platform to interact with customers. Adoption is expected to nearly double by 2018 (61 percent) and reach 80 percent by the year 2020.

Methodology

TeleSign commissioned Lawless Research to design and conduct a study about B2C cloud communications practices. Between August 1 and August 7, 2017, 502 managers and above who currently have or plan to add communications functions in consumer-facing applications or websites completed a 10-minute online survey. The online survey was hosted by Qualtrics and Research Now provided respondents from their online panel. Tests of significant difference were conducted at the .01 level (99% probability that the difference is real, not by chance).

Resource Links:

• For full access to the Customer Communications Report, please visit: telesign.com/customercommunicationsreport.
• To further explore the growth and benefits of cloud communications, please check out our infographic at https://www.telesign.com/blog/post/infographic-how-businesses-use-cloud-communications-to-fuel-growth/.
• To learn more about how TeleSign’s cloud communications platform is helping businesses better reach and engage their customers, please visit: telesign.com.

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About TeleSign

TeleSign is a communications platform as a service (CPaaS) company, founded on security. Since 2005, TeleSign has been a trusted partner to 20 of the top 25 global websites and mobile applications, helping secure billions of end-user accounts. Today, TeleSign’s data-driven, cloud communications platform is changing the way businesses engage with customers and prevent fraud. Get started at www.telesign.com and follow us @TeleSign for more information.

Media Contacts:

Sondra Magness

310-742-8252

smagness@telesign.com

Janelle Dickerson

650-801-0936

Janelle.dickerson@zenogroup.com

Fraud Intelligence API Leverages Global Crowdsourced Telecom Fraud Data to Help Companies Better Predict, Detect, and Block Account-Based Fraud

Los Angeles, CA – January 2, 2017 – TeleSign, the world’s first end-to-end communications platform as a service (CPaaS), today announced the integration of BICS’ Telco Fraud Data Consortium platform into its industry-leading fraud intelligence solution, TeleSign Score. This integration enables TeleSign’s Score API to leverage BICS’ vast global network of crowdsourced telecom fraud data to help companies better predict, detect, and block fraud.

TeleSign Score is a powerful risk assessment API that delivers fraud reputation scoring based on phone number, email, and IP address intelligence, as well as traffic patterns, machine learning, and a proprietary global data consortium. In addition to its existing data points and algorithms, TeleSign’s Score API now analyzes BICS’ global fraud data in real-time when calculating its risk reputation scoring.

“What we’ve heard from businesses today is as much as ten percent of their user base is fake, leading to rampant account-based fraud that is leaving their real users and ecosystems in danger,” says Tom Powledge, Chief Product Officer at TeleSign. “With these enhancements to TeleSign Score, our customers can now take advantage of an unrivaled database of global risk intelligence to better predict and block account-based fraud before it affects their users and their reputation.”

The Importance of Fraud Risk Scoring

Fraudsters today are creating mass amounts of fake accounts in order to attack consumers and businesses through spam, phishing attacks, promo abuse, and other costly fraud. By carrying out these attacks, fraudsters can damage a brand’s growth, reputation, and value. Companies rely on TeleSign Score to proactively and effectively identify and block these harmful accounts at registration.

Combining access to BICS’ global fraud data with TeleSign’s deep relationships with other mobile network operators, TeleSign Score is able to analyze massive volumes of real-time and historical data on phone number, email, and IP address usage from around the globe. The API then feeds this information into customer-specific machine learning algorithms to provide a risk score and recommended response for each new user.

Unrivalled Global Reach

BICS manages more than 26 billion minutes annually for more than 1,000 communication service providers, including many mobile operators across more than 200 countries globally. The global communication traffic view allows BICS to understand and crowd-source global fraud patterns and leverage them for proactive actions. Combining its size and scale with the global fraud data consortium, BICS has been able to block more than half a billion fraud attempts in the last 5 years.

“At BICS, we understand that proactivity is vital in the fight against fraud,” says Ravish Patel, Senior Product Manager at BICS.  “With the addition of our unrivalled global crowdsourced fraud data to TeleSign’s already robust Score API, it’s now easier than ever for companies to distinguish between real and fake users and stop fraud.”

TeleSign Score is customizable by customer, industry or specific use case, enabling companies to proactively identify fraud while streamlining the user experience for legitimate users. The TeleSign Score API is available today around the globe and can be easily embedded into new or existing app-based platforms.

To learn more about the benefits of integrating BICS’ Telco Fraud Consortium into TeleSign Score, please visit our blog at https://www.telesign.com/blog/post/additional-data-enhances-our-fraud-risk-assessment-api/.

To learn more about seamlessly integrating TeleSign Score into your user experience, please visit www.telesign.com/products/score.

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About TeleSign

TeleSign is a communications platform as a service (CPaaS) company, founded on security. Since 2005, TeleSign has been a trusted partner to 20 of the top 25 global websites and mobile applications, helping secure billions of end-user accounts. Today, TeleSign’s data-driven, cloud communications platform is changing the way businesses engage with customers and prevent fraud.

Find out more on www.telesign.com and follow us @TeleSign for more information.

About BICS

As a leading international communications enabler, BICS is connecting the world by creating reliable and secure mobile experiences anytime, anywhere. We are a global voice carrier and the leading provider of mobile data services worldwide. Our solutions are essential for supporting the modern lifestyle of today’s device-hungry consumer – from global mobile connectivity, seamless roaming experiences and fraud prevention, to global messaging and the Internet of Things. We are headquartered in Brussels, with a strong presence in Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Middle East.

For more information visit www.bics.com and follow our tweets @BICS_SA.

Media Contacts:

Sondra Magness

TeleSign

310-742-8252

smagness@telesign.com

Alexandru Filip

BICS

+32 (2) 547.50.21

alexandru.filip@bics.com

Los Angeles, CA – June 15, 2017 – TeleSign, the world’s first end-to-end communications platform as a service (CPaaS), today announced new iOS capabilities for its mobile app verification service, App Verify. App Verify for iOS is a lightweight software development kit (SDK) that enables mobile app developers to streamline the onboarding account verification process to assist with increasing conversions and providing identity assurance.

Last year, total worldwide mobile app downloads exceeded 90 billion, an increase of more than 13 billion across the iOS App Store and Google Play[1]. As apps increasingly play a vital role in maintaining a healthy and growing business, removing friction and reducing abandonment during the user registration and transaction process is key. Additionally, ensuring the validity of new users is extremely important in preventing fraud and securing accounts from compromise. With the App Verify SDK, businesses can securely embed a better phone number verification process within new or existing mobile apps and deploy frictionless authentication experiences, complete with branding, for an optimal user experience.

“Effortless onboarding of new users is critical to our customers – many of whom count their users in the hundreds of millions,” said Tom Powledge, Chief Product Officer, TeleSign. “With TeleSign App Verify, we’re at the forefront of offering simple, secure verification that enables businesses across the globe to verify and protect their users on the two largest operating systems in the world.”

According to TeleSign’s Fraud Report, 64% of companies report prioritizing smooth and easy user registration over security needs. With TeleSign App Verify, businesses no longer need to choose between providing an easy registration process for new users or protecting their ecosystem from fake users. Users simply enter their phone number, click a button, and are verified at once, removing the friction, reducing user abandonment and assisting with higher growth in conversions. App Verify for the Android platform, available since 2015 (previously known as Auto Verify), utilizes a proprietary carrier-signaling method where the user verification is automatically performed in the background (app to phone), reducing manual steps for higher conversions and results in lower cost user verifications.

Additional iOS capabilities of TeleSign App Verify include:

• Interactive SMS Applink Verification – send clickable SMS applinks that when opened, automatically deliver one-time passcodes (OTPs) to the mobile app to complete the verification process, with minimal user interaction.
• Integrated Security – Helps keep hackers from reverse engineering the SDK to extract API credentials and reduces the possibility of bulk account creation.
• Custom Branding – Easily embed the user verification process within your new or existing mobile app, while maintaining full control over the branding and user experience.
• Customizable SMS Templates – Customize applink URI scheme for easy deep linking and app discoverability and set up language templates to localize the user experience.
• Lightweight Mobile App SDK – Utilize a Swift framework integrated into your iOS-based app project libraries along with sample code for seamless integration.
• Detailed Usage Reporting – View and monitor all your verification and authentication events and gain access to comprehensive usage reports.

To learn more about App Verify, and how TeleSign can help your business verify and protect users, please visit www.telesign.com/products/app-verify.

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About TeleSign

TeleSign is a communications platform as a service (CPaaS) company, founded on security. Since 2005, TeleSign has been a trusted partner to 20 of the top 25 global websites and mobile applications, helping secure billions of end-user accounts. Today, TeleSign’s data-driven, cloud communications platform is changing the way businesses engage with customers and prevent fraud. Get started at www.telesign.com/go and follow us @TeleSign for more information.

Media Contacts:

Sondra Magness

310-742-8252

smagness@telesign.com

Janelle Dickerson

650-801-0936

Janelle.dickerson@zenogroup.com

[1] Source: App Annie, 2016 Retrospective – Mobile’s Continued Momentum

Los Angeles, CA – Dec. 12, 2017 – TeleSign, the world’s first end-to-end communications platform as a service (CPaaS), today announced expanded global coverage for Two-Way SMS through its SMS Verify and SMS APIs. TeleSign Two-Way SMS enables businesses to send and receive text messages from customers in 84 countries around the globe in order to provide support and engage them in the most ubiquitous method available.

With its global reach and ubiquity, SMS remains one of the best methods for businesses to communicate with users today. Ninety percent of SMS messages are read within three minutes and 98 percent of all SMS messages are ultimately read, versus just 20 percent of emails[i]. Two-Way SMS from TeleSign serves as an effective touch point throughout the entire customer lifecycle and provides an optimal “human-touch” experience. Businesses create customer conversations through an open line of communication, send timely information and get responses instantly. This ultimately leads to higher customer conversion and retention rates and a superior customer journey overall.

“In today’s on-demand economy, consumers expect more from the companies they do business with. There’s a massive opportunity for brands to differentiate themselves in the marketplace by creating convenient and engaging two-way SMS based experiences,” said Tom Powledge, Chief Product Officer, TeleSign. “From rescheduling office appointments to confirming banking transactions, TeleSign Two-Way SMS makes it possible for businesses, big and small, to deliver customized experiences customers love.”

As digital transformation continues to push companies to launch differentiated services for customer engagement (see IDC White Paper – “TeleSign Poised for Market Leadership in CPaaS”), cloud communications solutions are driving these changes resulting in growth and increased customer conversion and retention. According to a recent TeleSign report, 87 percent of business leaders say their company’s success depends on the ability to connect with customers via SMS/text, voice and other cloud communications channels.

TeleSign Two-Way SMS Global Availability

With expanded global reach in 84 countries, TeleSign Two-Way SMS enables businesses to create a superior customer experience that leads to higher engagement, satisfaction, and growth. TeleSign Two-Way SMS is available today on top of of TeleSign’s SMS Verify and SMS APIs. This interactive communications feature can be seamlessly embedded into new or existing web and mobile apps. Current TeleSign customers can contact their representative to enable this feature.

To learn more about Inbound SMS for Two-Way Interactive Communications, please visit: https://developer.telesign.com/docs/enterprise-inbound-sms.

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About TeleSign

TeleSign is a communications platform as a service (CPaaS) company, founded on security. Since 2005, TeleSign has been a trusted partner to 20 of the top 25 global websites and mobile applications, helping secure billions of end-user accounts. Today, TeleSign’s data-driven, cloud communications platform is changing the way businesses engage with customers and prevent fraud. Get started at www.telesign.com/go and follow us @TeleSign for more information.

Media Contacts:

Sondra Magness

310-742-8252

smagness@telesign.com

[i] http://www.adweek.com/digital/the-marketing-opportunity-in-mobile-messaging-infographic/

BICS’ unparalleled global network and reach to mobile operators combined with TeleSign’s leading cloud communications platform and state-of-the-art mobile identity & authentication solutions creates the first global end-to-end Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS)

Brussels, April 25, 2017 – BICS, a global provider of international wholesale connectivity and interoperability services, today announced it has entered a definitive agreement to acquire privately held TeleSign Corporation, a United States company active in the provision of authentication and mobile identity services to Internet and digital service providers, for $230 million. The acquisition creates the world’s first end-to-end CPaaS provider, bridging the market leading TeleSign cloud communications platform with one of the largest global carriers in the world.

“We’ve been in the driver’s seat of our industry’s transformation, and we’ve built a solid business of over 1.5 billion euro ($1.6 billion) in yearly turnover, with the ambition of bridging the telecom world with the new and innovative communications providers worldwide”, said Daniel Kurgan, CEO of BICS. “By combining the power of TeleSign’s advanced cloud communication platform and customer base with BICS’ market-leading footprint and global reach, we are well positioned to lead the development of one of technology’s most exciting sectors.”

Today, companies of all sizes and sectors are embracing cloud communications to create innovative new services and transform how they communicate with their customers. As enterprises move to offer the latest and most secure services, harnessing the power of the cloud has become critical to every organization’s digital transformation. In fact, IDC forecasts the worldwide voice and text messaging communications platform-as-a-service market to grow from $867 million in 2016 to $8.2 billion in 2021¹.

Communications-Platform-as-a-Service allows developers and product owners to easily add real-time communications features into their applications and services without having to build backend infrastructure and interfaces. With today’s acquisition, businesses now have a single destination for the world’s first end-to-end CPaaS provider, offering an unparalleled global network and the most reliable and trusted communications platform available.

“TeleSign has a strong business with annual revenues of around $100 million built on security and on a pedigree of innovation, with a strong portfolio of global customers,” said TeleSign’s CEO Aled Miles. “Combining our technology with BICS’ global carrier footprint, mobile operator reach and strong experience, puts us in a class by ourselves. Being the industry’s first end-to-end CPaaS means we can offer an unmatched level of business communications as we help organizations grow, engage and secure their end-users anywhere in the world.”

TeleSign will continue to operate independently as a wholly-owned subsidiary of BICS with the brand name TeleSign, under the continued leadership of CEO Aled Miles. Daniel Kurgan, CEO of BICS, will become the Chairman of TeleSign.

This strategic acquisition will enable BICS to expand from a global carrier to an international digital enabler, and accelerate its strategy to diversify in terms of customers, solutions and geographies, acquiring expertise in mobile identity, account security and cloud communication solutions. This will also enhance BICS’ geographical scope in the Americas and enlarge its customer base towards world-top internet brands to which BICS will sell its messaging, voice and Internet of Things solutions.

Transaction Terms and Financing

BICS will pay an upfront cash consideration of $230 million (on a cash and debt free basis) as well as a variable performance-based earn-out consideration. Closing of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory conditions which are expected to be fulfilled in the third quarter of 2017.

“This is an important step in the further development of both BICS and TeleSign, and we are confident in the common and strong future of our organizations. We are looking forward to finalizing the acquisition and officially welcoming TeleSign to the BICS family. We have both the ambition and the opportunity to build together a stronger organization and further advance the CPaaS market”, added Daniel Kurgan, BICS’ CEO.

Ends

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbour provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results due a variety of factors, including, among other things, obtaining regulatory approval of the acquisition or that other conditions to the closing of the transaction may not be satisfied.

ABOUT TELESIGN

TeleSign is a communications platform as a service (CPaaS) company, founded on security. Since 2005, TeleSign has been a trusted partner to 20 of the top 25 global websites and mobile applications, helping secure billions of end-user accounts. Today, TeleSign’s data-driven, cloud communications platform is changing the way businesses engage with customers and prevent fraud.

Get started at www.telesign.com and follow us @TeleSign for more information.

ABOUT BICS

As a leading international communications enabler, BICS is connecting the world by creating reliable and secure mobile experiences anytime, anywhere. We are a global voice carrier and the leading provider of mobile data services worldwide. Our solutions are essential for supporting the modern lifestyle of today’s device-hungry consumer – from global mobile connectivity, seamless roaming experiences, fraud prevention and authentication, to global messaging and the Internet of Things. We are headquartered in Brussels, with a strong presence in Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Middle East.

For more information visit www.bics.com

Second Largest Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) Company Poised for Leadership in $8B Market

Los Angeles, CA – April 18, 2017 – TeleSign, a communications platform as a service (CPaaS) company founded on security, today announced new self-service capabilities that enable app developers to easily access TeleSign APIs and add communications and security into their web and mobile applications in minutes.

The need for cloud communications is on the rise, specifically the business need to add real-time communications into apps and websites to engage customers and keep accounts secure. In fact, TeleSign research shows 91% of developers plan to embed communications APIs or SDKs into their apps in the next year[1]. The CPaaS market, which IDC forecasts to top $8.2 billion by 2021[2], is one that is defining digital disruption among all types of businesses and enabling a smarter and safer digital experience for consumers all around the world.

“Since our founding in 2005, TeleSign’s communications platform has handled business critical traffic for 20 of the 25 largest brands in the world,” said Aled Miles, CEO of TeleSign. “With the introduction of self-service, we are excited to open up our platform to all developers as we continue to change the way businesses communicate with their customers.”

Today’s launch is accompanied by a new IDC white paper [3], sponsored by TeleSign, entitled, “TeleSign Poised for Market Leadership in CPaaS,” which underscores the critical need for businesses to adapt to new ways of engaging with customers and details how TeleSign is positioned to capitalize on this high growth market. In the new report, IDC notes TeleSign is “not just another upstart competitor in this growing market.” It continues that TeleSign will “leverage its formidable expertise in mobile identification, security and authentication (2FA) as key differentiators for customers and partners considering a CPaaS approach.”

“The market for embedded communications has exploded in recent years and will continue to grow significantly, topping $8.2 Billion by 2021,” said Mark Winther, analyst at IDC. “We believe TeleSign, with its proprietary data intelligence and high-quality global network, is well-positioned to help organizations adopt cloud-based communications and is ultimately poised for market leadership in CPaaS.”

Get Started with TeleSign in Minutes

TeleSign’s new self-service capabilities at telesign.com/go let developers create an account, get API credentials along with $5 in free credits, and use their credit card to purchase services.  Self-service allows developers to quickly test TeleSign products for free, get up and running in minutes, and easily purchase ongoing transactions. Developers around the world can efficiently test and deploy with no contract commitments or minimum transaction thresholds – just pay for what they use. TeleSign APIs and SDKs, combined with data intelligence on every phone number in the world, create a stronger and more secure user experience for all. The new portal offers easy access to many of TeleSign’s APIs including:

• TeleSign Messaging API – Allows developers to add real-time communications in the form of SMS-based alerts, reminders, notifications, invites, two-way communication, OTPs, and other automated messages to Web and mobile applications.
• TeleSign Voice API – Allows developers to add real-time communications in the form of voice-based alerts, reminders, notifications, OTPs, and other automated messages to Web and mobile applications.
• TeleSign Score API – A fraud risk assessment API that delivers reputation scoring based on a variety of data points including phone number intelligence, traffic patterns, machine learning, and a global data consortium.
• TeleSign PhoneID API – Provides a variety of features including cleansed phone number, phone type, and telecom carrier information that can be used to determine which phone numbers are a potential fraud risk and the best communication method for a phone number (voice, SMS).
• Auto Verify SDK – An SDK to provide a frictionless user verification process into existing Android applications in a secure, low-cost way.

The World’s Largest Brands Trust TeleSign

TeleSign, a $100M annual revenue business, is the world’s second largest CPaaS company based on revenue.[4] Known for helping secure billions of end user accounts for brands like Evernote, HomeAway, Salesforce, Tinder and 20 of the 25 largest brands in the world, TeleSign is also a registered Mobile Network Operator (MNO). TeleSign’s network is high-quality and reliable, allowing the highest availability, delivery and completion rates, and unmatched international coverage spanning hundreds of high-quality, direct-to-carrier routes.

“We looked at several vendors, but TeleSign won out as our CPaaS provider because of their demonstrated security expertise, high quality direct-to-carrier routes, and global coverage,” said Dave Engberg, CTO of Evernote. “We use TeleSign to send both SMS notifications and security 2FA messages.”

“TeleSign’s global coverage is critical to our business,” added TJ Spinks, Postmaster for HomeAway. “Their waterfall delivery process, superior global network, and traffic monitoring increased delivery rates and reduced call center volumes. We use several TeleSign products for our SMS customer communications and fraud prevention efforts.”

The TeleSign CPaaS platform is available today through a free trial and includes free access to TeleSign’s leading data intelligence solution, TeleSign Score, at www.telesign.com/go. Full development resources are also available for free at https://developer.telesign.com/.

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About TeleSign

TeleSign is a communications platform as a service (CPaaS) company, founded on security. Since 2005, TeleSign has been a trusted partner to 20 of the top 25 global websites and mobile applications, helping secure billions of end-user accounts. Today, TeleSign’s data-driven, cloud communications platform is changing the way businesses engage with customers and prevent fraud. Get started at www.telesign.com/go and follow us @TeleSign for more information.

Media Contacts:

Sondra Magness

310-742-8252

smagness@telesign.com

Janelle Dickerson

650-801-0936

Janelle.dickerson@zenogroup.com

[1] TeleSign Developer Survey, April 2017

[2] IDC, Worldwide Voice and Text Messaging Communications Platform-as-a-Service Forecast, 2017–2021, Doc #US42326117, March 2017

[3] IDC White Paper, sponsored by TeleSign, TeleSign Poised for Market Leadership in CPaaS, Doc #US 42479517, April 2017

[4] Gartner, Market Guide for Communications Platform as a Service, Bern Elliot, Drew Kraus, Daniel O’Connell,

16 February 2017

1 in 3 victims of an account compromise stopped doing business with the company or site

LOS ANGELES – November 16, 2016 – TeleSign today released its Consumer Account Security Report 2016, providing insight into consumer sentiments on online security and the value they place on their digital lives. Of the 1,300 U.S. consumers surveyed, nearly a third report the value of their online life at $100,000 to priceless. Further, more than half of the respondents surveyed (55 percent) place the onus on businesses as the party primarily responsible for providing for the security of their online and mobile accounts.

“When you consider what comprises an online life – email, banking and social media accounts, personal information, photos and more – these assets are extremely valuable, even ‘priceless’ as some reported,” said Aled Miles, TeleSign CEO. “With the majority of consumers looking to businesses to keep them safe online, companies need to prioritize providing strong account security or risk losing valuable users. In fact, our report shows 1 in 3 victims of account compromise stopped doing business with the impacted brand.”

More Than Half Experienced a Security Incident   

Fifty-one percent of consumers experienced a security incident in the past year, whether it was having an account hacked, password stolen, or their personal information compromised. This is in part due to a key finding of the Report that shows consumers continue to reuse passwords at an alarming rate. On average, consumers use the same password for seven online accounts – meaning that 71 percent of online accounts are protected by passwords that are used across multiple sites. Additionally, 46 percent of consumers use passwords that are older than five years.

These statistics are significant when considering the magnitude of consumer credentials flooding the market in 2016, which has already recorded the highest number of data breaches on record according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.[1] When credentials for one account are compromised, it creates a domino effect, essentially putting all other accounts protected with those same credentials at risk of cybercrime.

Millennials Prove Most Risky

Within key demographics, the Report found that millennials (ages 18 to 35) have the poorest security habits putting them at the highest risk for fraud. Overall, 64 percent of the millennials surveyed have had an account compromised, hacked, or their password stolen while less than half (44 percent) of all other generations combined have experienced the same. Millennials were also found to use fewer unique passwords to guard their accounts, with 35 percent using only 1 to 4 passwords, versus 25 percent for all other generations.

Awareness of Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Increases

On the upside, consumers are making strides in adopting additional security beyond passwords.  Forty-six percent report ever enabling 2FA for any account, up from 39 percent in 2015, representing an 18 percent year-over-year increase. Further, of the 46 percent who have ever enabled 2FA, 77 percent turned it on for at least one new account in the past year. Interestingly, those that had at least one account compromised are almost twice as likely to enable 2FA as those who have not been victims of online fraud (60 percent vs. 32 percent).

Additional findings include:

• Eighty-two percent of consumers are concerned about online security with 88 percent concerned specifically about being hacked.
• Almost half (42%) of fraud victims say the security incidents resulted in losses.
• Only 12 percent of consumers are concerned about securing Internet of Things (“IoT”) devices, falling well behind concern for other accounts such as banking and finance accounts (87 percent) or email accounts (56 percent). This is notable in light of the recent attack targeting IoT devices, which according to experts, was the largest distributed denial of service (“DDoS”) attack on record.
• Nearly three in four (73 percent) consumers say forgetting their password is the most frustrating part of the account security process.

“With all the dangers we face today in our online lives, it’s encouraging to see that consumers are becoming increasingly aware of how to protect themselves beyond the password alone,” said Miles. “Seventy-three percent are urging companies to provide additional security such as 2FA. Turning it on is a step everyone can take today towards keeping their accounts secured and their online lives safe and private.”

Resource links:

• For full access to the TeleSign 2016 ‘Consumer Account Security Report,’ please visit: telesign.com/casr2016.
• To learn more about protecting online accounts, visit the Ultimate Guide to Two-Factor Authentication at turnon2fa.com.

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About TeleSign

TeleSign’s account security platform is trusted by the world’s largest brands to prevent online fraud. Combining real-time data & analytics, phone verification and two-factor authentication, TeleSign helps customers secure billions of end-user accounts from compromise. To find out more, visit http://www.telesign.com or follow us on Twitter – @TeleSign.

Research Methodology

TeleSign commissioned Lawless Research to design and conduct a study about consumer online and mobile account security. Between August 31 and September 5, 2016, 1,300 adults who have a mobile phone and at least one online account completed a 10-minute survey. The online survey was hosted by Qualtrics and Survey Sampling International provided respondents from their online panel. Tests of significant difference were conducted at the .01 level (99% probability that the difference is real, not by chance).

Media Contact

Sondra Magness

TeleSign

310.742.8252

smagness@telesign.com

[1] Identity Theft Resource Center 2016 Data Breaches http://www.idtheftcenter.org/Data-Breaches/

TeleSign Score, a Global Fraud Intelligence API, Now Harnesses the Power of Predictive Analytics to Verify End-Users

Los Angeles, CA – September 28, 2016 – TeleSign (www.telesign.com), today announced its commitment to the National Cyber Security Alliance’s “Lock Down Your Login” internet safety and security initiative to empower Americans to better protect their online accounts by moving beyond passwords. The campaign, which was announced by the White House in February 2016 as part of its Cybersecurity National Action Plan, calls for all Americans to fortify their online accounts by enabling the strongest authentication tools available so everyone can enjoy a greater peace of mind knowing their online accounts are more secure.

In 2015 alone, an estimated $15 billion was stolen from 13.1 million U.S. consumers due to identity fraud.1 Usernames and passwords simply are not enough to secure online accounts. While hackers and criminals continue to evolve their attack techniques, 72 percent of Americans still believe their accounts are secure with only a username and password.2 Millions of Americans have had their online accounts hacked because of stolen credentials or weak logins, but many are either unaware or not using widely available, simple technologies to better secure their online accounts. With the most common passwords in the country remaining 123456 and 123456789, this false sense of confidence is leaving the door open to hackers looking to steal identities and valuable personal information.

Responding to the challenge, the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign was created to help Americans minimize personal risk to cybercrime by educating and empowering them to better protect their key social media, email and bank accounts by enabling strong authentication – sometimes called multi-factor, two-factor or login approval. While no security measure is foolproof, a few easy steps – such as using a separate small device you have in your possession, verifying identity via biometrics like voice, facial recognition, fingerprint or iris-scan or by using a unique one-time code through an app on your mobile device – can make it much harder for hackers to disrupt our digital daily lives. Implementing strong authentication ensures it’s actually the user trying to access the account and not just someone with the correct password tying to log in which can alleviate some of the worry about being online.

“TeleSign research shows that the password is failing us. More than half of Americans experienced an online security incident in the past year, and hackers are making quick work of accounts protected by passwords alone,” said Aled Miles, CEO at TeleSign. “At TeleSign, we provide account security solutions to many of the world’s largest brands and have seen firsthand the power of two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect consumer accounts beyond the password and stop a significant amount of online fraud. We are a proud partner of the White House’s ‘Lock Down Your Login’ campaign and look forward to helping raise awareness for this vitally important security step.”

The “Lock Down Your Login” campaign is a STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ initiative built upon a broad, coordinated effort to increase consumer awareness of our individual and collective roles in cybersecurity. It brings together dozens of industry leaders and like-minded organizations that understand the importance of cybersecurity awareness and education.

“We live in a digital age where people, networks and devices are increasingly interconnected, and the more internet users who enable strong authentication, the safer we will all be online,” said Michael Kaiser, NCSA’s executive director.  “We are thankful to our ‘Lock Down Your Login’ sponsors and partner organizations for their support and commitment to our shared responsibility of promoting cybersecurity and helping to create a safer, more secure and trusted internet.”

To learn how to make your online accounts as secure as possible with strong authentication and to become a partner, please visit www.lockdownyourlogin.com.

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About TeleSign

TeleSign’s account security platform is trusted by the world’s largest brands to prevent online fraud. Combining real-time data & analytics, phone verification and two-factor authentication, TeleSign helps customers secure billions of end-user accounts from compromise. To find out more, visit http://www.telesign.com or follow us on Twitter – @TeleSign.

About the “Lock Down Your Login” Campaign

The “Lock Down Your Login” campaign, a key public-facing pillar of the multifaceted Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP) announced by the White House in February 2016, is a STOP. THINK. CONNECT.™ initiative led by the National Cyber Security Alliance and developed by a coalition of industry leaders and like-minded organizations working in collaboration with government, who understand the importance of cybersecurity awareness and education. The campaign was built upon a broad, coordinated effort to increase consumer awareness of our individual and collective roles in cybersecurity. The campaign’s sponsors include CompTIA, Google, Javelin Strategy & Research, Mastercard, mcgarrybowen, Mozilla Foundation, PayPal, TeleSign, True Key™ by Intel Security, Twitter Inc., Visa Inc. and. Wells Fargo & Company. Learn more about our partners and how to get involved at LockDownYourLogin.com.

Companies to operate independently, with TeleSign a subsidiary of BICS

Brussels, October 31st 2017 – BICS, a global provider of international wholesale connectivity and interoperability services, today announced it has closed the acquisition of TeleSign, following the April 25th announcement of entering a definitive agreement to acquire the US-based CPaaS company for $230M. The closing of the acquisition creates the world’s first end-to-end CPaaS provider, bridging the market leading TeleSign cloud communications platform with one of the largest global carriers in the world.

TeleSign will continue to operate independently as a wholly-owned subsidiary of BICS with the brand name TeleSign. The company also continues under the leadership of CEO Aled Miles, and adds Daniel Kurgan, CEO of BICS, as the Chairman of the Board.

“We are pleased to have brought the TeleSign acquisition to completion and enthusiastic to add TeleSign’s deep pool of talent and expertise to the BICS family. This complementary combination accelerates several of our strategies for growth, including expanding our customer base, regional reach and product innovation. We have also broadened our expertise within the cloud communications development lifecycle, and will build and grow TeleSign’s established strong position in the fast-growing CPaaS and cloud security markets”, stated Daniel Kurgan, CEO of BICS and Chairman of TeleSign.

TeleSign has built a strong business in mobile identity, account security and cloud communication solutions and has been the trusted partner to the world’s top internet brands or mobile applications looking to engage and secure end-users. The acquisition strengthens TeleSign’s push into the high-growth communications platform as a service market. In a recent report, IDC forecasts the worldwide voice and text messaging communications platform-as-a-service market to grow from $867 million in 2016 to $8.2 billion in 2021.

“We’re powering a fundamental change in the way businesses engage their users. Our platform enables developers to add real-time communications and security into their applications without the need for complex backend infrastructure. Now backed by BICS’ extensive global network and its direct reach to over 700 mobile and fixed operators worldwide – TeleSign’s trusted platform is in a class by itself in terms of global reach, network reliability and overall quality of service,” said Aled Miles, CEO of TeleSign.

As businesses of all sizes and sectors embrace cloud communications to create innovative new services and transform how they communicate with their customers, this acquisition creates a clear leader in the field to help them achieve their goals. BICS and TeleSign will move forward focused on their respective core businesses while benefiting from immediate and future synergies in areas such as jointly investing in accelerating product roadmaps to speed up time to market and leveraging rich data reservoirs to enrich product offerings.

Ends

ABOUT TELESIGN
TeleSign is a communications platform as a service (CPaaS) company, founded on security. Since 2005, TeleSign has been a trusted partner to 20 of the top 25 global websites and mobile applications, helping secure billions of end-user accounts. Today, TeleSign’s data-driven, cloud communications platform is changing the way businesses engage with customers and prevent fraud.

Find out more on www.telesign.com and follow us @TeleSign for more information.

ABOUT BICS
As a leading international communications enabler, BICS is connecting the world by creating reliable and secure mobile experiences anytime, anywhere. We are a global voice carrier and the leading provider of mobile data services worldwide. Our solutions are essential for supporting the modern lifestyle of today’s device-hungry consumer – from global mobile connectivity, seamless roaming experiences, fraud prevention and authentication, to global messaging and the Internet of Things. We are headquartered in Brussels, with a strong presence in Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Middle East.

For more information visit www.bics.com and follow our tweets @BICS_SA

MEDIA CONTACTS