SINGAPORE-Following their European counterparts, seven Asia-Pacific mobile operators inked a deal to form a regional alliance, called Bridge Mobile Alliance, which will operate through a Singapore-incorporated company, Bridge Mobile Pte Ltd. The joint-venture company aims to drive economies of scale for equipment purchases and roll out products and services across countries.
The seven operators are Bharti of India, Globe Telecom of the Philippines, Malaysia’s Maxis, Australia’s Optus, Singapore Telecom, Taiwan Cellular Corp. and Telkomsel of Indonesia. Together, the group has a combined base of more than 56 million subscribers.
“Currently, there are several strategic issues facing the mobile operators in the Asia Pacific. The region is made up of highly diversified cultures, economies, mobile market maturity and varying degrees of technological development,” stated Lim Chuan Poh, chief executive officer of SingTel Mobile and chairman of the new alliance. “As a result, mobile operators in the region are unable to fully capitalize on economies of scale. Through varied implementation, cross-border interoperability beyond basic voice service at best remains poor. In addition, there is a risk of further market fragmentation with the emergence and adoption of different technological standards.
The operators will use Bridge Mobile to jointly invest to build and establish a regional mobile infrastructure and common service platform, enabling the creation and seamless delivery of regional mobile services and enhancing roaming service for subscribers. Bridge Mobile will also develop new products and services on a regional basis and create competitive advantages and differentiation for the mobile operators in their respective markets.
Two similar wireless carrier alliances have been formed in Europe.
