Alexander Marrow, Supantha Mukherjee

MOSCOW, Reuters – The Chief Executive of VEON (NASDAQ :), Tuesday announced a digital authentication system for mobile logins that could compete with those provided by U.S. technology companies.

This new tool lets users log in to systems such as banking or retail websites with their phones numbers. It is much more convenient than having to use separate passwords or ones attached to domains like Google and Facebook.

Veon intends to offer the service to its 212million customers in nine nations after a nine-month trial that saw over 1.2 million active users per month in Russia.

Terzioglu said that Reuters Veon was a better alternative to the systems offered by Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ:).

Terzioglu stated in an interview that “we had the unique opportunity to simplify these interactions by allowing people to just use their phone numbers, and we tokenise credentials including some personal information which isn’t necessarily desirable to share it with everybody.”

Russian officials are increasingly imposing pressures on tech companies from abroad over content on these platforms and the demands that Russian offices be established on Russian soil.

TOWER STRATEGY

Veon has also revealed a new strategy focusing on digital assets, local currency revenue growth of double-digits and divestiture its tower assets. Terzioglu believes it will do this in the next two decades as part of its plan to reduce the debt.

Telecoms firms across Europe face a lackluster revenue growth, high levels of debt, and a tight budget. They are trying to find ways to increase cash, either by spinning off their assets or selling tower portfolios.

Last week, the company that owns more than 50,000 towers in Russia signed an agreement to buy its Russian tower assets for $1 billion.

Terzioglu expressed his desire to see more of the deals. “In the next quarters, we will hopefully complete this series by 2022 and 2023,” Terzioglu explained.

He stated, “It’s been around nine months (since) when we pushed that button on our Physical Asset Monetisation Strategy.”

It is currently in negotiations with Pakistani and Bangladeshi independent tower operators.

Veon had $7.7 Billion in consolidated debt as of September 30, and tower sales could bring in many billion.

Shares of the company were at 3.4% by 1345 GMT