National wholesale VoIP provider Pac-West Telecomm has signed a strategic alliance with VeriSign to combine expertise in providing a full-service converged IP voice and data offering to service providers.

The strategic alliance combines VeriSign’s database and signaling services with Pac-West’s network to create a one-stop shop for service providers that want to get into business quickly in multiple states, said Reid Cox, vice president of business development for Pac-West.

“There isn’t a nice easy-to-use nationwide solution--that was our strategy that we announced six months ago,” Cox said. “VeriSign is an outstanding partner to augment our existing capabilities.”

VeriSign provides its national SS7 network, and databases for number assignment, local number portability, local emergency service and other key aspects of delivering VoIP service. PacWest is providing the physical network and other key capabilities such as connections to the public safety access points (PSAPs) for E911 service.

“This is a single national full-service offering,” Cox said. “To achieve this, you would have to go to multiple carriers.”

By combining forces, Pac-West and VeriSign also avoid competing with each other in the wholesale VoIP realm, he pointed out. “If we hadn’t become partners, we would have been strong adversaries.”

Pac-West’s focus on providing all the pieces that a service provider needs to deliver VoIP--from CLEC certification in each state to providing numbers, LNP, E911 and the network to deliver the service--enables it to optimize its business for that wholesale strategy.

“What makes us unique is that we put all of our resources behind a strategy of saying we will be an enabler,” Cox said. “In the process, we created a very efficient business model. We are not trying to offer various products and services within our territory and adding VoIP as one of them. We built an infrastructure that is very efficient for the service provider market.”

The VoIP market hasn’t grown as fast as Pac-West had expected, he added, but that could change with the existence of a national network.

“My personal opinion is that the infrastructure has not been in place to support the providers,” he said. “They have spent time educating the public and advertising their services. We have put ourselves squarely behind enabling service providers to make those services available nationally.”