China Telecom has signed an IoT business agreement with Bridge Alliance, enabling China Telecom to provide Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine to Machine (M2M) services to customers across Bridge Alliance’s footprint.

Bridge Alliance covers 34 countries or regions in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. IoT investment in the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan, will be around $455 billion in 2021.

China Telecom said its IoT partnership leverages Bridge Alliance’s commercial capabilities to provide homogenous solutions across its footprint. China Telecom’s customers can apply a “glocalised” approach tapping on the simplicity of one single integration with China Telecom and the support and service quality of local networks in Bridge Alliance.

Bridge Alliance members can extend their IoT services to China, one of the main IoT markets in Asia, through China Telecom. China Telecom and Bridge Alliance operators have already deployed common connectivity platforms to ensure better experience to international enterprise customers when deploying their solutions across the footprint of China Telecom and Bridge Alliance.

“China Telecom is also ready to support any inbound opportunities from the member operators into China,” said Deng Xiao Feng, managing director of Global Business Department of China Telecom.

“The addition of China Telecom to Bridge Alliance’s network of partners will bolster our position to serve our global enterprise customers better,” said Eileen Tan, CEO of Bridge Alliance.

China Telecom’s total assets exceed RMB 700 billion, with annual revenue of more than RMB 380 billion. China Telecom has broadband Internet subscriber base of 144 million, mobile subscribers of 215 million, and fixed-line subscribers of 132 million in 2016.

China Telecom has rolled out Transformation 3.0 strategy with a focus of upgrading intelligent network, service ecosystem and smart operation for the digital ecosystem to drive corporate transformation.