Collaboration will facilitate roll-out of IoT across Asia Pacific

SINGAPORE, July 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bridge Alliance, a leading mobile alliance covering 34 countries in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, today announced a collaboration with China Unicom and Singtel to enable enterprise customers of both companies to perform embedded SIM (eSIM) changes over-the-air (OTA) without having to manually configuring their devices' SIM cards to change networks in either China or Singapore.

The collaboration is the first between two Bridge Alliance members/partners and follows a successful eSIM swap trial in early April 2020 where China Unicom managed to swap its eSIM profiles to Singtel's using Bridge Alliance's technical and commercial capabilities. Under the collaboration, devices which are equipped with China Unicom eSIMs will automatically switch their profiles to Singtel's when they are brought into Singapore. The devices' embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC) will also download and activate Singtel's profiles through a GSMA-compliant subscription manager platform.

Ms Ong Geok Chwee, CEO of Bridge Alliance said, "We are excited that under the new collaboration, mobile customers can extend their reach with the premier member operators across the Asia Pacific region while being enabled with multi-domestic connectivity, economies of scale and logistical efficiency. Together, we can help Chinese companies accelerate Internet of Things (IoT) deployment in Southeast Asia, simplify business negotiations through Bridge Alliance's framework agreement, to bring market advantages so Chinese companies can land across the region."

The collaboration leverages Bridge Alliance's current strategic IoT partnership with China Unicom and paves the way for Singtel to play a key role in facilitating cross-border IoT connectivity across China and Singapore.

"IoT deployments are rapidly growing across industries and markets as enterprises digitalise processes to become more agile and efficient. This collaboration with Bridge Alliance will help drive more seamless connectivity and broader IoT adoption, and augment Singtel's IoT ecosystem of partners, enhancing our ability to support China Unicom's and other Chinese enterprises' rollout of IoT devices in Singapore and the region. By leveraging our extensive, secure IoT connectivity services, enterprises can have greater control over mission-critical operations in real-time and increase business productivity," said Mr Dennis Wong, Vice President, Enterprise Mobility Product & Platform of Singtel Group Enterprise.

With more IoT devices being built with eSIMs and cross-border eSIM swap collaborations being arranged, switching cellular networks abroad becomes easier. This enables enterprises operating across the Asia Pacific region to enjoy local data SIM rates rather than being charged roaming rates, making it more cost effective to roll out IoT across the region.

"This is an exciting international collaboration we are embarking on. China Unicom will develop overseas markets with our partners such as Bridge Alliance and Singtel and provide top level services to our customers," said Mr He Fei, Assistant General Manager, China Unicom IoT Company.

A study by Markets and Markets reported that the global eSIM market would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 31% between 2018 and 2023 to reach 1.168 billion units valued at US$978 million.

For press enquiries:

China Unicom
Liu Shuai
Connectivity Product Director
Tel: +86 156 5160 9866
Email: lius6@chinaunicom.cn

Bridge Alliance
Ellyne Phneah
Brand & Communications Manager
Email: media@bridgealliance.com                                                                           

Singtel
Sonny Phua
Manager
Group Strategic Communications and Brand
Tel: +65 8511 7996
Email: sonnyphua@singtel.com

About Bridge Alliance

Bridge Alliance is the leading mobile alliance for premier operators and their customers in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Our alliance covers 34 members who serve more than 900 million customers collectively across these regions. Our goal is to build group capabilities and create value for our members by enabling compelling roaming services and experience, offering multi-market enterprise and IoT solutions, and delivering savings and benefits through leveraging group economies.

Bridge Alliance's members and partners include: Airtel (India, Sri Lanka and the Airtel subsidiaries in Africa: Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia), AIS (Thailand), China Telecom (Mainland China), China Unicom (Mainland China), CSL Mobile (Hong Kong), CTM (Macau), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Maxis (Malaysia), Metfone (Cambodia), MobiFone (Vietnam), Optus (Australia), Singtel (Singapore), SK Telecom (South Korea), stc (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait), SoftBank Corp. (Japan), Taiwan Mobile (Taiwan), Telkomsel (Indonesia), and Turk Telekom (Turkey).

For more information, visit www.bridgealliance.com.

About China Unicom

China Unicom IOT co., LTD. (CUIOT), a wholly owned subsidiary of China Unicom (CU) with the registered capital of 1 billion RMB, is regarded as a main operation of the Internet business including applications, components, etc. and a unified platform for IOT cooperation business. CUIOT mainly focuses on product development, support, operation and sales，which aims to cultivate professional and integrated business capacity and to acquire quick market-respond. CUIOT is also responsible for the unified planning, construction and maintenance management of IOT platform.

About Singtel

Singtel is Asia's leading communications technology group, providing a portfolio of services from next-generation communication, technology services to infotainment to both consumers and businesses. For consumers, Singtel delivers a complete and integrated suite of services, including mobile, broadband and TV. For businesses, Singtel offers a complementary array of workforce mobility solutions, data hosting, cloud, network infrastructure, analytics and cyber-security capabilities. The Group has presence in Asia, Australia and Africa and reaches over 710 million mobile customers in 21 countries. Its infrastructure and technology services for businesses span 21 countries, with more than 428 direct points of presence in 362 cities.

For more information, visit www.singtel.com
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Related Links :

https://www.bridgealliance.com