By Winston Chai

Having lost out on the government's number portability project, US-based Neustar has re-adjusted its Singapore gunsights to focus on providing instant messaging platforms for telcos instead.

The firm was a firm favourite to win the contract for developing and maintaining the centralised database needed to power the Republic's new mobile number portability regime, but it eventually lost the deal to rival Syniverse.

The mandate, which was initiated by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, kicked in on June 13 to allow mobile subscribers to easily switch operators while retaining their phone numbers.

Neustar is among a handful of companies with prior experience in developing such systems in other countries.

The database acts as a common repository for phone numbers and associated operator links, and integrates with the information silos of all telcos to allow for easier number retention.

The company's know-how in deploying centralised databases lays the foundation for providing newer Internet-protocol (IP)-based services over mobile networks.

Its recent foray into instant messaging (IM) is a good example, according to Stephen Tsang, vice-president and general manager of Neustar Asia-Pacific. Neustar struck its flagship deal with StarHub earlier this month by providing the technology platform to power its new mobile IM service.

Called Chat Anywhere, the offering allows phone users to log into to their Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger accounts concurrently by launching one application on their mobile phones.

Some websites and software such as Meebo, Iloveim, Trillian and Pidgin already offer this capability on the PC, but Neustar is among the first to extend this function to the mobile phone.

By paying a monthly flat rate of around $5.35, StarHub customers can chat with their IM contacts on the go without having to worry about the costs of transmitting data over cellular networks.

To fully replicate the IM experience on the PC, Neustar's software also allows bells and whistles like adding emoticons to a chat session.

It even comes with a 'sleep mode' so that users can remain online but data transmission is temporarily stopped, Mr Tsang told BizIT in a recent interview.

Neustar's aim is to get more operators to adopt its messaging platform so that phone subscribers from different operators will be able to use IM to message each other, much like they use telco-neutral text messaging technology today.

The company's vision is to build a common, inter-operable IM system for mobile users so that they can check if their phone contacts are online, and have the ability to initiate chat sessions instantly using their handsets.

'What we're trying to do is to inter-connect the operators using IM. We're trying to do it network by network, and then country by country,' said Mr Tsang.

This article was first published in The Business Times on 30 June 2008.