Two Asian mobile phone firms join operators’ alliance

Two more Asian mobile phone companies have joined an alliance of operators that aims to share wireless services among its members.

At a signing ceremony held in Bangkok recently, DTAC (Thailand) and CTM (Macau) became the latest operators to join the association.

The addition of DTAC and CTM brings AMI’s membership to seven operators with a subscriber base of over 30 million in the Asia-Pacific region. AMI’s five founding operators are CSL (Hong Kong), Maxis (Malaysia), MobileOne (Singapore), Telstra (Australia) and Smart Communications (Philippines).

"We welcome the addition of DTAC and CTM in the alliance. Our customers will now be able to benefit from and enjoy the many innovative services offered by these two operators in Thailand and Macau," said Napoleon Nazareno, Smart president and CEO.

The AMI was set up in April 2003 to enable operators in Asia-Pacific to cooperate on initiatives and to jointly develop products and services designed to enhance their mobile users’ experience, especially in the area of mobile data and while roaming abroad.

The expansion of AMI reinforces these aims – increasing the number of countries subscribers are able to roam to seamlessly and increasing the potential range of products and services available to them.

"Our subscribers have come to rely on the increasingly sophisticated services accessed through their mobile phones. Overseas travel heightens this need. Cooperative arrangements such as the Asia Mobility Initiative enable travellers to access services not only back home but also those that host operators offer. Participating operators can thus help create the ‘home away from home’ environment that our subscribers genuinely value," Nazareno said.

To date AMI has been actively collaborating to put in place a number of inter-network services designed to improve subscribers’ experience as they travel abroad. Services now available across member networks include use of GPRS (General Packet Radio Services), sending MMS (Multimedia Messaging Services) pictures and CLI (Caller Line Identification).

In the area of content, AMI has taken steps to provide subscribers with joint services by linking existing portals and by sharing existing premium content – bringing an entire new range of games, other entertainment and information to a wider market. AMI is also working on other initiatives to increase the range of VHE (Virtual Home Environment) services available to its subscribers.

AMI is not an exclusive group. Each member is free to both maintain and enter into new bilateral arrangements with other operators and third parties where necessary. Participation from other operators will enable even more subscribers to experience a more consistent level of services and experience as they travel abroad.