ACASIA gets tough to defend its patch
15/8/2005
Asian carrier alliance ACASIA is strengthening its network partnerships and services to fend of the expansion of global players in the region.
Owned equally by Singapore Telecom, Telekom Malaysia, PLDT, Indosat, CAT and Jabatan Telekom Brunei, ACASIA provides a collective marketing pitch for its members in the region, offering a range of ATM, Frame Relay, Private Line and IP VPN services throughout a range of industry segments. The group is celebrating its tenth year of operation, and having overcome a range of battles over the years is now looking to solidify its position.
According to ACASIA chief executive Conrad C Reyes, “we have been around for more than ten years and it is only now that we opened up ourselves to interested carriers in the region.” The group recently added VNPT in Vietnam as its seventh carrier partner, and while Reyes is coy on its next move, the group is believed to be targeting Cambodia Telecom, Myanmar Telecom and Lao Telecom to join in the future.
“There have been calls to expand our coverage to Vietnam for sometime now and as I have mentioned earlier, we looked at the opportunity closely. We now feel that the timing and demand has made the venture worthwhile,” Reyes said in an interview with CommsDay Global. “At this point of time we are staying focused in serving our customers throughout the seven ASEAN countries’ routes including Vietnam. But I am confident that there would be other opportunities ACASIA will look at in time to come.”
150 CUSTOMERS: With coverage across seven countries and the possibility of more to come, ACASIA is starting to show signs of becoming a formidable force in the future market for enterprise services in the region. From a “mere fist-full” of customers ten years ago, Reyes says that ACASIA now services more than 150 major entities across the automobile, manufacturing, logistics, banking and finance and energy sectors. And while those sectors are also the target of major global players such as BT Global Services, AT&T and Equant, he believes that ACASIA has the resilience to continue to grow.
“We expect to grow our customer base from these industries. The data communications business is a tightly knit industry and as such we expect prospects to view our track record in assessing our quality,” he said.
While bullish on the possibilities for growth, Reyes says that the enterprise market is increasingly well educated about the opportunities presented by next generation communications and challenges still remain in fine-tuning ACASIA’s future product set.
“Our customers have become more adept at purchasing network services and demand higher standards from us while maintaining competitive prices. It’s been a little tough, especially with the liberalising of some markets in this region as well as the expansion of global carriers in this region (no doubt to find new sources of revenue). However, ACASIA remains focused,” he said.
ACASIA has developed a full set of OSS arrangements for its services and claims now to be making strong inroads with its IP VPN offerings. Reyes said, “we remain focused towards fine-tuning our existing services. Our IP VPN Class of Service has hit the market now with good responses. We practise a great degree of flexibility and with VNPT on board, there is no telling of our other capabilities. I am bullish of our prospects as the general market trends are indicating positive signals.”
ACASIA is in an interesting position in that some of its partners, particularly SingTel, have strong internal enterprise business units and are pursuing some of the same customers. According to Reyes, there is no conflict among the partners and the individual expansion of partners will only enhance the group’s collective strength.
He said, “in this partnership, everyone has a voice, everyone has to be heard… Our Partners are dominant players in the region, no less. They continue to expand their reach within their respective countries and even beyond. ACASIA represents value for Partners in the sense that together everyone is able to pool resources rather than having to venture alone.”
Tim Marshall
