11 leading Asia Pacific mobile operators from Bridge Alliance form region’s largest M2M alliance

27 January 2014 – 11 leading Asia Pacific mobile operators today form the region’s largest Machine-to-Machine (M2M) alliance to offer a ‘one-stop-shop’ experience for M2M deployment across the Asia Pacific region. Bridge M2M Alliance is a centre of excellence for M2M services and solutions to attract partnerships and provide customers with an end-to-end M2M regional capability.

Bridge M2M Alliance comprises members of Bridge Alliance and is made up of Airtel (India), AIS (Thailand), CSL (Hong Kong), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Maxis (Malaysia), MobiFone (Vietnam), Optus (Australia), SingTel (Singapore), SK Telecom (South Korea), Taiwan Mobile (Taiwan) and Telkomsel (Indonesia). Together, the group serves a combined base of over 500 million subscribers, making it the largest M2M alliance in the Asia Pacific region.

With its Bridge M2M Alliance partnership, Maxis’ Managed M2M service is able to better support the M2M requirements of major multi-national companies beyond Malaysia in a seamless manner. Maxis is already addressing customer needs for cross-border services such as M2M roaming required for sectors such as transportation and logistics, which complement its existing M2M offerings.

T Kugan, Maxis’ Head of Digital Services, said: “M2M is an important pillar of our digital strategy serving a wide range of Enterprise customers. Being the only telco in Malaysia to be part of this initiative gives us a strategic advantage in our local market, and our customers can look forward to comprehensive regional geographical coverage and superior service.

“Moving forward, we plan to enrich our service offerings by exploring other parts of the M2M value chain so that we can provide end-to-end tailored M2M solutions for selected customer segments with superior customer support.”

Bridge M2M Alliance eliminates the complexity of dealing with multiple operators by offering seamless delivery of regional M2M services across geographical borders. The Alliance will also improve customers’ service experience through enhanced interoperability, service levels and customer support.

Alessandro Adriani, CEO of Bridge Alliance, noted: “Asia is made up of highly varied economies, uneven technological development and diversified regulatory requirements. As a result, multinational businesses find it extremely difficult to navigate the intricacies of the region and to fully capitalise on economies of scale. The evolution of Bridge Alliance in the M2M business is an indication of the commitment from the 11 operators to overcome these challenges for the success of customers’ businesses.”

The M2M partnership covers commercial as well as technological cooperation across various industries such as vehicle telemetry, security, energy management, etc. This enables the development of new business models, creation of new products and services and reduction in customers’ operational costs. The alliance is determined to build an innovative ecosystem by partnering technology players in the M2M value chain like application developers, module manufacturers and service providers.

Alliance members will continuously cooperate to secure significant commercial benefits and economies of scale for customers and enable joint product development initiatives. Being key operators in the respective countries, they are well placed to leverage and support multinational companies hoping to ride on Asia’s growth, as well as Asian companies looking to expand globally.

SNAP AND SHARE YOUR TRAVEL MOMENTS WITH ‘U’

U Mobile Introduces Lowest Unlimited Internet Roaming Services

Kuala Lumpur, 1 November 2013 – According to a recent survey by TripAdvisor’s Trip Barometer Mobile and Social Survey , Malaysians are known to be tapping away on their smartphones, and are addicted to staying connected online via their mobile devices while travelling, be it for business or leisure.

To satisfy consumers’ needs to be in-touch and document their journeys on their own social media networks, U Mobile - Malaysia’s most dynamic and innovative 3G mobile operator – unveils lowest unlimited internet roaming for existing and new postpaid  customers.

U Mobile postpaid plan customers can now rejoice as they are able to stay connected with their friends, family, colleagues and business partners at market’s lowest unlimited internet roaming rate as they travel Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. With a maximum rate of RM30 daily, customer can now travel without worries and enjoy unlimited internet surfing while they are travelling abroad.

The new internet roaming service by U Mobile enables its postpaid customers to check business emails, connect with their circle of contacts via social networking and instant messaging applications such as WeChat, KakaoTalk and WhatsApp; and share their travel moments and discoveries on Facebook, Instagram and other social sharing sites of their choice.

As the internet roaming rate caps at RM30 per day, U Mobile postpaid customers can bury qualms over costly charges and bill-shock at the end of the month; and continue to stay connected and share their precious travel moments with their friends and family. In addition, the telco’s new unlimited internet roaming service does not require any sign up or pre-activation, hence making it more convenient for customers to enjoy unlimited internet access while travelling abroad.  

“Mobile users today are glued to their smartphones, even while they are travelling. Either they are snapping pictures of interesting discoveries and sharing them on social networking platforms, or simply updating their loved ones on their whereabouts; internet is a necessity for their escapades.

U Mobile’s new unlimited internet roaming service allows customers to enjoy limitless possibilities of documenting their travel experiences and still receive updates on what is happening back home while they are away,” said Jasmine Lee, U Mobile’s Director of Marketing.

“This offering comes just in time for the year-end holiday season, where many people usually go for holidays. Our new unlimited internet roaming service will be a great complement to our customers’ smartphones to stay connected. We are looking to expand the list of countries soon, so that they can enjoy similar internet roaming rates during their trips,” she added.

Frequent travellers to these regions can also bid farewell to tedious manual set-up procedures as U Mobile postpaid plan subscribers will be prompted to roam with the telco’s preferred roaming partner in each region upon arrival at the mentioned destinations via SMS. Consumers can enjoy all the great deals and offerings by simply switching to U Mobile to enjoy unlimited internet roaming, and many other attractive and value-for-money services.

U Mobile has partnered with China Unicom, PCCW in Hong Kong, Taiwan Mobile and Singapore’s StarHub as roaming partners in those regions. Should users choose to roam with other operators, the standard Pay As You Use (PAYU) rates will apply. This special rate of RM30 per day is valid until 28 February 2014.

Maxis and Bridge Alliance launch the Bridge Traveller Program

Singapore, 18 June 2008 – Maxis Communications Berhad (“Maxis”), Malaysia’s largest mobile operator and Bridge Alliance, the leading mobile alliance in the Asia Pacific, today announced the launch of Bridge Traveller Program – Asia’s first regional privilege membership programme for mobile subscribers. Bridge CEO Mary Ong and Maxis Head of Prod Dev and Infotainment Kugan Thirunavakarasu

Tailored to meet travellers’ needs and to enhance their travel experience, the Bridge Traveller Program offers a suite of exclusive privileges and benefits from a network of more than 60 merchants and partners across the Asia Pacific. These include airport merchants, limousine and car rentals, hotels and lifestyle merchants across 11 countries.

The Bridge Traveller Program is open to all Maxis mobile subscribers. The programme has two membership tiers – Platinum and Gold. Platinum is the higher tier of membership and the difference between Platinum and Gold is the number of privileges accorded by the membership programme and merchant partners. As an added benefit, customers of any of the 11 Bridge Alliance member operators who join the Bridge Traveller Program will automatically qualify to be a Platinum member and they can enjoy more privileges. Maxis’ customers who sign up as a Bridge Traveller Program member shall automatically become a Platinum member.

“We already provide our customers with the largest roaming coverage, with 370 network operators in 171 destinations. With the Bridge Traveller Program and other Bridge Alliance value-added services, Maxis aims to provide the highest level of customer support and benefits to customers who are frequent travellers, which we are able to do so using the widely-available local services of our ten alliance member operators in their country,” said Kugan Thirunavakarasu, Maxis’ Head of Product Development and Infotainment, who spoke at CommunicAsia 2008 in Singapore.

The Bridge Alliance’s 11 member operators are: Airtel (India), AIS (Thailand), CSL (Hong Kong), CTM (Macau), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Maxis (Malaysia), SK Telecom (Korea), SingTel Mobile (Singapore), SingTel Optus (Australia), Taiwan Mobile (Taiwan) and Telkomsel (Indonesia).

To enjoy these exclusive privileges, it is simple and straightforward. Maxis customers just need to sign up as a member of the Bridge Traveller Program and simply present their membership identity to the merchants to enjoy instant benefits.

With immediate effect, customers can now sign up for membership to the Bridge Traveller Program at http://www.bridgetraveller.com/. Upon successful registration, members will receive a short message (SMS) to download their membership identity on their mobile phone.

For more information about the Bridge Traveller Program, visit http://www.bridgetraveller.com/