Singtel, China Unicom and Bridge Alliance to collaborate on eSIM strategy

The Business Times writes that Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) is looking to work with China Unicom and mobile alliance Bridge Alliance to allow the two telcos’ enterprise customers to carry out embedded SIM (eSIM) changes ‘wirelessly’, without recourse to any manual configuration of their SIM cards to change networks in either Singapore or China. Unlike a SIM card, with eSIMs there is no physical swapping over required as the card is basically a small rewritable chip inside the phone, meaning you can decide to change your operator – usually via a phone call. However, under the collaboration, the three companies confirm that devices equipped with China Unicom eSIMs will ‘automatically switch their profiles to Singtel’s when they are brought into Singapore’. The paper notes that the cooperation deal is the first between two Bridge Alliance members, and ‘leverages Bridge Alliance’s strategic Internet of Things (IoT) partnership with China Unicom’.