Bridge Alliance and the Global M2M Association collaborate to drive worldwide growth in M2M and Internet of Things markets

• The new partnership between both organizations will focus on the joint provision of their advanced Multi-Domestic Service across 77 markets worldwide
• The Multi-Domestic Service, a single global connectivity management platform and common eUICC SIM solution, embraces the GSMA Remote SIM Provisioning specification – the world's first alliance-to-alliance remote provisioning of an eUICC SIM.
• The joint service will be demonstrated by the GMA and Bridge Alliance at the Mobile World Congress 2016, Innovation City, Stand A11 in Hall 3

MONTREAL, Feb. 17, 2016 /CNW/ - Bridge Alliance and the Global M2M Association (GMA) today announce their new partnership and the live demonstration of their advanced Multi-Domestic Service, a single global connectivity management platform including an eUICC SIM, which can be used in 77 markets throughout their combined footprints. The Multi-Domestic Service will be demonstrated in conjunction with the Samsung KNOX Enterprise Billing capabilities by AIS and Taiwan Mobile on behalf of Bridge Alliance, and the GMA at the Mobile World Congress 2016, Innovation City, Stand A11 in Hall 3.

The partnership will provide a seamless customer experience with worldwide coverage and superior quality of service, allowing device manufacturers, enterprises, and service providers to easily deploy their Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services. The Multi-Domestic Service is a global solution to address the local opportunities for higher bandwidth applications and new business models. It significantly reduces barriers for enterprises, keeping total cost of ownership low while maximizing quality of service. The Multi-Domestic Service is the world's first alliance-to-alliance remote provision based on GSMA specifications.

Before this collaboration, multinational corporations planning to roll out connected devices worldwide faced many hurdles, including regulatory issues, fragmented deployment interfaces, and multiple testing. The new partnership between GMA and Bridge Alliance will solve these issues by putting in place robust and secure technical capabilities to simplify multi-network M2M and IoT deployment for multinational customers in the retail, healthcare, consumer electronics, transportation, automotive and energy sectors on a worldwide scale. GMA and Bridge Alliance leverage technology providers including Ericsson (connectivity management) and Gemalto (On-Demand Subscription Manager and eUICC) to enable a truly consistent customer experience.

The two alliances have a complementary footprint: Bridge Alliance members cover 35 markets from Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and the GMA's seven operator groups cover 42 markets in Europe, North America, Africa as well as Asia.

Eileen Tan, CEO of Bridge Alliance, says: "Members of Bridge Alliance and GMA are incumbent leaders in their home markets with the best local networks and leading positions in M2M and IoT. This partnership gives our joint global customers a strategic advantage by taking out complexity and reducing time-to-market. It marks a new milestone for us and we are truly pleased."

"We are extremely pleased to partner with Bridge Alliance. It is our vision to jointly serve global customers by providing the Multi-Domestic Service we introduced last year," states Emmanuel Routier, Vice President M2M at Orange and Steering Committee Member of the Global M2M Association. "The Multi-Domestic Service is an innovative M2M connectivity management service which helps our customers to drastically simplify the global deployment, management and operations of their connected products. The compliance of the solution with GSMA-specification allows us to provide a scalable, reliable and secure M2M connectivity solution to our customers."

About Bridge Alliance

Bridge Alliance is a partnership of 35 leading mobile operators, namely, Airtel (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Airtel subsidiaries in Africa: Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia), AIS (Thailand), Avea (Turkey), CSL (Hong Kong), CTM (Macau), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Maxis (Malaysia), MobiFone (Vietnam), Optus (Australia), Singtel (Singapore), SK Telecom (South Korea), STC (Saudi Arabia), SoftBank Corp. (Japan), Taiwan Mobile (Taiwan), Telkomcel (Timor-Leste), Telkomsel (Indonesia) and Viva (Bahrain and Kuwait).

A combined customer base of over 750 million and an extensive footprint allow members to leverage on the collective strengths of the alliance to develop and launch innovative roaming and enterprise solutions. Bridge Alliance operates through a Singapore-incorporated joint venture company, Bridge Mobile Pte Ltd. For more information, visit www.bridgealliance.com

About the Global M2M Association

Established in February 2011, the Global M2M Association (GMA) is based on a service cooperation agreement between Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia, TeliaSonera, Bell Canada, SoftBank Mobile and Swisscom and covers 42 markets across Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. This partnership of tier 1 operators with leading LTE networks focuses on delivering best-in-class, enhanced and seamless M2M services globally and while maximizing the business benefits for its customers. The GMA aspires to help businesses and organizations to increase the availability of enhanced M2M solutions and innovations, and make them easier to deploy and manage all around the world. All participating parties are committed to offer customers enhanced quality of service, M2M roaming services and interoperability across a global footprint, by bringing together their technical and innovation capabilities. This unified and cohesive approach will enable to improve the incident and troubleshooting procedures and harmonize module standards through joint testing and certification.

In February 2015, the GMA has introduced its Multi-Domestic Service platform. Jointly implemented by GMA operators, the Multi-Domestic Service is designed to help global enterprises capitalize on the growth of connected devices.

For more information, please visit www.globalm2massociation.com.

Press contacts:

Bridge Alliance

[email protected]

GMA

[email protected]

SOURCE Bell Canada