Bridge Alliance

Founded	2004
Type	Privately owned
Industry	Telecommunications
Members	35
Headquarters	Singapore
Products & Services	Mobile services for enterprise and for customers travelling abroad
Website	www.bridgealliance.com

The Bridge Alliance (originally the Bridge Mobile Alliance) is a business alliance of 35 major mobile telecommunications companies in Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East. The alliance is built on seamless service connectivity and a suite of integrated value-added services 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.^[1]

History

Established on 3 November 2004, the alliance originally comprised Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) and four companies, namely Bharti Airtel, Globe Telecom, Optus and Telkomsel, as well as Maxis Communications and Taiwan Mobile,^[2] 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, Telkomcel in Timor-Leste, Airtel in Bangladesh, 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, Saudi Telecom Company in Saudi Arabia, VIVA in Bahrain, VIVA in Kuwait and Avea in Turkey.

At present, the Bridge Alliance members have over 750 million subscribers in 35 markets.

Milestones

2016

• Bridge Alliance and the Global M2M Association collaborate to drive worldwide growth in M2M and Internet of Things markets^[3]

2015

• Avea, the mobile unit of Türk Telekom Group, joins forces with Bridge Alliance. Avea will be the first mobile operator in Turkey to become the latest member of Bridge Alliance.^[4]

2014

• Saudi Telecom Company Joins Bridge Alliance ^[5]
• SoftBank Mobile Joins Bridge Alliance^[6]

2013

• Airtel Africa joins Bridge Alliance^[7]
• Bridge Alliance welcomes Airtel Bangladesh on board^[8]
• Bridge Alliance welcomes Telkomcel as its 13th member^[9]

2012

• Bridge Alliance expands into Vietnam and welcomes MobiFone as their 12th member^[10]
• Bridge Alliance and Softbank Mobile formed a business partnership to expand their Enterprise offerings^[11]

2011

• AIS and Globe offered Bridge VoiceSMS Roam, one-rate voice and SMS roaming price plans, across APAC^[12]
• Bridge AsiaRoamData SIM service had an expanded coverage to 11 countries^[13]

2010

• Bridge Alliance launched one-flat rate, daily unlimited data roaming plan across all Bridge Alliance member countries^[14]

2007

• Bridge Alliance launched capped plans with one-flat data roaming rate across 11 territories^[15]
• FreeMove and Bridge Alliance established partnership^[16]
• Two new members added - SK telecom and AIS^[17][18]

2006

• Bridge Alliance welcomes CTM as its newest operator member^[19]

2005

• Bridge and SingTel launched their first regional mobile gaming competition^[20]
• CSL joined Bridge Alliance^[21]

2004

• Seven leading Asia Pacific mobile operators formed region’s largest joint venture mobile company^[22]

See also

• FreeMove
• Starmap Mobile Alliance

References

1. FreeMove and Bridge Mobile Alliance to establish alliance-to-alliance cooperation Archived October 22, 2008, at the Wayback Machine., Bridge Mobile Press Release, March 27, 2007
2. Seven leading Asia Pacific mobile operators to form region’s largest joint venture mobile company Archived November 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine., Bridge Alliance Press Release, November 3, 2004
3. "bridgealliance". www.bridgealliance.com.
4. "bridgealliance". www.bridgealliance.com.
5. "STC gets on board with Bridge Alliance".
6. "SoftBank Mobile Joins Bridge Alliance".
7. "Bharti Airtel's African Network to Join the Bridge Alliance". Cellular-news. 1 December 2013.
8. "Airtel Bangladesh Joins Bridge Alliance". Cellular-news. 1 October 2013.
9. "Telkomcel joins Bridge Alliance". Telecompaper. 9 July 2013.
10. "12 Short Stories About the Mobile Networks". Cellular-news. 27 December 2012.
11. "Bridge Alliance teams with Softbank to target multinationals". IT Wire. 10 January 2012.
12. "Globe Telecom Offers Cost Savings for Customers With Bridge VoiceSMS Roam". ETB News. 14 December 2011.
13. "Bridge Alliance Expands Fixed Fee Mobile Data Roaming to 11 Countries". Cellular-news. 16 November 2011.
14. "Bridge Alliance launches one-flat rate, daily unlimited data roaming plan across 11 territories". 1 November 2010.
15. "Asia Pacific's leading Bridge Alliance launches one-flat data". SingTel. 5 November 2007.
16. "FreeMove and Bridge Mobile Alliance to establish alliance-to-alliance cooperation". 27 March 2007.
17. "SK Telecom, expands 3G global alliance". SK Telecom. 9 March 2007.
18. "Bridge Mobile Alliance welcomes Advanced Info Service as its 11th operator member". SingTel. 18 June 2007.
19. "Bridge Mobile Alliance welcomes CTM as its newest operator member". 27 November 2006.
20. "Battle for Asia's 1st World Cyber Games Mobile champs". 14 September 2005.
21. "Asia's Bridge Mobile Alliance launches services, adds HK CSL". Total Telecom. 13 June 2005.
22. "Telcos Form Bridge Mobile Alliance". Wireless Watch Japan. 4 November 2004.

External links

• Official website