Bridge Alliance, Singtel and Ericsson award-winning partnership accelerates IoT market expansion across Asia Pacific

Asia Pacific is a challenging region for connected businesses due to differences in levels of market maturity, regulations, and technological capabilities across markets. Companies seeking to roll out connected products internationally also face difficulty in sourcing connectivity services across various countries and experience challenges in managing the project implementation across multiple service providers. But thanks to a partnership between Singtel, Bridge Alliance and Ericsson, expanding IoT businesses across the APAC region is no longer fraught with uncertainty.

The partnership is built on Singtel’s Multi-Domestic Connectivity Solution, powered by Ericsson’s IoT Accelerator platform, and Bridge Alliance’s tight-knit community of tier-one mobile operators across the region. This collaboration means enterprises can tap into an ecosystem of the region’s top technologies and robust networks, allowing them to develop a seamlessly connected business while shortening time-to-market and reducing costs and operational complexity. This unique partnership has already won industry acclaim, clinching the top prizes in the “Best IoT Initiative” category at the 2022 Global Carrier Awards and the “IoT Innovation Award” at the 2022 World Communication Awards.

Recently, experts from the three parties gathered for a webinar to share insights on how to navigate the disparate markets, infrastructure, and policies; how to avoid mistakes around data residency and associated regulatory risks; and strategies to quickly deploy, manage and scale IoT businesses through a multi-domestic rollout. Keep reading for highlights from their conversation.

IoT adoption has been growing at a healthy rate, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, increased adoption of 4G and 5G, and enterprises refreshing 2G and 3G solutions with newer technology. The latest Ericsson Mobility Report shows that cellular IoT growth is outpacing that of the overall IoT market globally. Yet, despite the clear benefits of IoT, several challenges remain, including high global deployment costs, fragmented ecosystems, slow time-to-market, lack of control and reliable networks, and security concerns.

Heterogeneous regions like APAC face extra challenges:

• Market readiness: There’s an absence of dominant operator groups, and different countries have different levels of telecom development.
• Complex regulatory environments: Regulations and certification requirements vary by country, so it can be hard to deliver a common customer experience across markets.
• Lack of harmonized connectivity: Without a dominant operator, enterprises need to work with multiple mobile operators and their varied connectivity platforms to ensure IoT devices are connected and working seamlessly across markets.
• Contracting and billing: Certain markets within APAC require enterprises to have local contracting and billing entities, which limits expansion of IoT solutions through one provider.

How Singtel, Bridge Alliance and Ericsson are removing these barriers

Key to unlocking the secret to a successful IoT business in APAC is bridging the fragmented operator and regulator landscapes across markets. With Bridge Alliance’s inter-operator agreements throughout the region, enterprises can ink a contract solely with Singtel as lead mobile network operator, without the need to do so with individual in-country operators. All these operators are onboarded to Ericsson’s IoT Accelerator platform that deploys services seamlessly and efficiently across the region. Singtel coordinates and manages the delivery and billing across other Bridge Alliance member operators, removing operational complexity associated with multi-country deployments for the enterprise.

This arrangement gives the enterprise visibility and control of all their connected assets through a single platform, and ease of doing business through one operator, supported by best-in-market networks and local market expertise from other operators. This unique model allows enterprises to roll out regional connected businesses rapidly, facilitating their market expansion and helping them achieve new revenues faster. Many multinational companies have benefited from this award-winning partnership, including a global automotive manufacturer, a European carmaker, and a German industrial OEM.

Be sure to watch the on-demand webinar to learn how you, too, can take advantage of the Singtel, Bridge Alliance and Ericsson partnership to accelerate your connected business strategy and growth opportunities in the APAC region.

The above was first published here at Ericsson’s website.