Profile: TNS, Inc. (TNS.N)

TNS, Inc. (TNS) is an international data communications company, which provides networking, data communications and value-added services to retailers, banks and payment processors. The Company is also a provider of data and voice network services to the global financial services industry. The Company operates an unaffiliated Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) networks in the United States capable of providing services nationwide, and it utilizes this network to provide call signaling, database access and other services to the domestic telecommunication industry. TNS’s data communications services enable transmission of transaction-related information critical to the customers' operations. The Company provides services to customers in the United States and to international customers in 28 countries, including Canada, Mexico and countries in Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. In May 2009, TNS completed the acquisition of the Communications Services Group (CSG) from VeriSign, Inc.

Point-Of-Sale (POS)

The Company’s POS division markets its data communications services directly to payment processors in the United States, Canada and Mexico. TNS also markets its POS data communications services to entities responsible for the transmission of state lottery transactions, federal and state electronic benefits transfer and healthcare transactions, as well as directly to select categories of merchants and retailers.

The Company’s private, secure data networks were designed specifically to address the data communications requirements of the payment processing industry. Its data communications services provide customized routing technology, built-in redundancy and geographic diversity and are configured to provide call connection and network utilization. Its data networks connect a merchant's POS terminal or an off-premise automated teller machine (ATM) to the payment processor's host computer.

The Company provides multiple means for the POS terminal or ATM to access its data networks. Merchant POS terminals and off-premise ATMs can connect directly to the Company’s network using its network using its dial-up service, which utilizes telephone services obtained from interexchange carriers and local exchange carriers. To complement its TransXpress service, TNS offers TNS Connect, a leased line service that utilizes its secure Internet protocol (IP) network. Leased line services are offered to operators of off-premise ATMs and merchants that either manage their own in-house networks or transmit large volumes of transactions. While the Company’s customers primarily choose to access its networks using its dial-up, the Company also provides alternative methods of connecting to its networks, including wireless, broadband and Internet connectivity via its TNSLink product line.

The Company’s wireless payment gateway platform, called Synapse, enables merchants and kiosk machine operators to process credit and other card transactions. The Company’s broadband service offering enables merchants to utilize broadband connectivity in their store to transmit data from the POS terminal or ATM to the payment processor. TNS Online, a performance monitoring and management information reporting application, is used by its customers to centrally monitor and manage the TNS equipment at their locations.

The Company competes with Verizon Communications, Inc., AT&T Corp, Hypercom Corporation, Cybera, Inc., MegaPath Networks, Inc., and APRIVA.

International Services Division (ISD)

The network technology and services the Company has developed to serve its customers in the United States are applicable to the data communications needs of payment processing and financial services industries in other countries. Internationally, it also provides card-not-present payment services, payment processing services to ATM owners and data communications services to payment processors that are not used by payment processors in the United States, including offline polling services, which enable merchants to store transaction data until the payment processor retrieves the data after business hours. The Company’s international services division provides services to customers located in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Colombia, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

TNS provides services to substantially all of the financial institutions in the United Kingdom, which acquire and process credit and debit transactions in the United Kingdom. It also provides services to financial institutions operating ATMs. The Company provides payment gateway services to merchants and card associations, which offer services over the Internet.

The Company competes with BT Group PLC, France Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telstra and Avantra.

Telecommunication Services Division (TSD)

The Company SS7 network is connected with the signaling networks of all of the incumbent local exchange carriers and a number of wireless carriers, competitive local exchange carriers, interexchange carriers and voice over IP (VoIP) service providers. TNS provides telecommunication services providers with SS7 connectivity, switching and transport services throughout the United States. Its SS7 network is connected to the SS7 networks of local exchanges and wireless carriers through more than 25 mated pairs of signal transfer points deployed throughout the country. The Company offers its customers access to databases maintained internally and to those operated by telecommunications carriers and other third parties. These databases are used to provide subscribers with intelligent network services, such as local number portability, line information database, caller identification and toll-free number services.

The Company competes with AT&T Corp., Syniverse Technologies, Inc., Verisign, Inc. and Verizon Communications, Inc.

Financial Services Division (FSD)

The Company’s IP data networks are designed specifically to address the data and voice communications requirements of the financial services industry. The Company’s IP network services allow its customers to access multiple financial services companies through a single network connection. In addition, these services facilitate communications between financial services companies by supporting multiple communications standards and protocols, including the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol. Its primary financial service offerings are Secure Trading Extranet and Trader Voice.

The Company’s Secure Trading Extranet service links financial services companies through its IP network. Through a single network connection, a customer can communicate with any other entity connected to the Company’s IP network. Given the number of industry participants connected to its network, including commercial banks, mutual funds, pension funds, broker-dealers, alternative trading systems, electronic communications networks and securities and commodities exchanges, a single customer can use its connection to the Company’s IP network to conduct seamless, real-time electronic trading and access a variety of content, including news, research and market data.

The Company’s specialized voice services provide secure, customized voice telecommunications between brokers, investment banking firms and securities and commodities exchanges. These services permit calls that originate over traditional phone lines to be connected over its secure, private IP network. The primary applications of the Company’s voice services are a voice link between specific domestic-to-domestic or domestic-to-international locations, which financial industry participants refer to as hoot & holler; an instant voice connection between two locations that is established, as soon as, a telephone receiver at either location is lifted, which financial industry participants refer to as automatic ring down, and a direct voice connection between two locations, which requires a manual signal, usually the push of a button, from the telephone at either location to initiate the call, which financial industry participants refer to as manual ring down.

The Company competes with AT&T Corp., BT Group PLC, Bloomberg, Reuters, Thomson Financial and SAVVIS, Inc.