Bridge Alliance

The Bridge Alliance (originally the Bridge Mobile Alliance) is a business alliance of 34 major mobile telecommunications companies in Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East. It uses connectivity and a suite of integrated value-added services, including IoT/M2M, Optimization and Enterprise Mobility, for all alliance members' subscribers while roaming on each other's networks. The concept is similar to that of the FreeMove alliance in Europe, with whom the Bridge Alliance has a partnership.FreeMove and Bridge Mobile Alliance to establish alliance-to-alliance cooperation , Bridge Mobile Press Release, March 27, 2007

History

Established on 3 November 2004, the alliance originally comprised Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), Bharti Airtel, Globe Telecom, Optus, Telkomsel, Maxis Communications, and Taiwan Mobile,Seven leading Asia Pacific mobile operators to form region’s largest joint venture mobile company , Bridge Alliance Press Release, November 3, 2004 enabling it to gain a foothold in the mobile markets of Singapore, India, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan.

The alliance expanded between 2005 and 2015 to also include Hong Kong CSL in Hong Kong, CTM in Macau, SK Telecom in South Korea, Advanced Info Service (AIS) in Thailand, MobiFone in Vietnam, Metfone in Cambodia, Telkomcel in Timor-Leste, Airtel in Sri Lanka, the African operators of Bharti Airtel (in Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia), SoftBank Mobile in Japan, and Saudi Telecom Company in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait.

Recently, the Bridge Alliance members number close to 900 million subscribers in more than 100 markets. Bridge Alliance partners include AT&T, China Unicom, FreeMove and the Global M2M Association.

Timeline

In 2004, seven large Asia Pacific mobile operators formed region's largest joint venture mobile company."Telcos Form Bridge Mobile Alliance". Wireless Watch Japan. 4 November 2004. In 2005, Bridge and SingTel launched their first regional mobile gaming competition. Also, CSL joined Bridge Alliance."Asia's Bridge Mobile Alliance launches services, adds HK CSL". Total Telecom. 13 June 2005. In 2006, Bridge Alliance added CTM as an operator member.

Bridge Alliance in 2007 launched capped plans with one-flat data roaming rate across 11 territories."Asia Pacific's leading Bridge Alliance launches one-flat data ". SingTel. 5 November 2007. FreeMove and Bridge Alliance established a partnership that year and two new were members added – SK telecom and AIS."". SK Telecom. 9 March 2007."". SingTel. 18 June 2007.

Bridge Alliance launched one-flat rate, daily unlimited data roaming plan across all Bridge Alliance member countries in 2010. AIS and Globe offered Bridge VoiceSMS Roam, one-rate voice and SMS roaming price plans, across APAC in 2011."". ETB News. 14 December 2011. And in 2011, Bridge AsiaRoamData SIM service had an expanded coverage to 11 countries."Bridge Alliance Expands Fixed Fee Mobile Data Roaming to 11 Countries". Cellular-news. 16 November 2011.

In 2012, Bridge Alliance expanded into Vietnam and accepted MobiFone as its 12th member,"12 Short Stories About the Mobile Networks". Cellular-news. 27 December 2012. and Bridge Alliance and Softbank Mobile formed a business partnership to expand enterprise offerings."Bridge Alliance teams with Softbank to target multinationals". IT Wire. 10 January 2012. In 2013, Airtel Africa joined Bridge Alliance,"Bharti Airtel's African Network to Join the Bridge Alliance". Cellular-news. 1 December 2013. as did Airtel Bangladesh"Airtel Bangladesh Joins Bridge Alliance". Cellular-news. 1 October 2013. and Telkomce, which became its 13th member."Telkomcel joins Bridge Alliance". Telecompaper. 9 July 2013. In 2014, Saudi Telecom Company joined Bridge Alliance,"STC gets on board with Bridge Alliance". and SoftBank Mobile joined Bridge Alliance."SoftBank Mobile Joins Bridge Alliance". In 2016, Bridge Alliance and the Global M2M Association collaborated to drive worldwide growth in M2M and Internet of Things markets. In 2017, Bridge Alliance and FreeMove expanded a partnership to offer integrated Enterprise Mobility in 106 markets. Bridge Alliance, China Unicom and Singtel Strengthen Interconnected Platform Capabilities with eSIM Swap Collaboration in 2020. Also that year, Bridge Alliance's Global MEC task force gathered in South Korea for first 5G MEC summit.

Bridge Alliance

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