Bringing UCaaS to APAC: 3 Challenges Every Provider Must Conquer

So, you are ready to take your Unified Communications (UCaaS) business abroad, but before you are even at the starting line you are hamstrung by hurdles!  With CAGR set to rise 12.7% by 2030 in ASEAN markets, it’s enticing to rush into new markets, but false starts and missteps are not only painful, they’re costly.

With the global Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) market set to reach 131 million users by 2028, growing into the ASEAN region is tempting, though the “haste makes waste” adage applies.  

Today we look at three barriers to entry into new markets within the ASEAN region, and how Symbio can support you in addressing them.

‍

1. Regulations

The Challenge:

Global expansion all starts with regulations; they determine how you operate in new markets. These often bring about a range of responses including a “ignore it, nothing will happen” approach to the “frozen with fear” approach when you realise how complicated it all is, causing you to give up in frustration.  

A tempered approach is realising that regulations are important; they exist in every market and are your key to driving growth. However, navigating local regulatory nuance is challenging for businesses and it is a mistake to assume your home country drives these regulatory initiatives.

‍

Symbio's Solution:

Symbio has deep, on the ground, regulatory expertise, which customers can leverage to help navigate local compliance requirements, including:

Local Compliance
Symbio provides digital tools and workflows to transform how service providers update and manage their compliance obligations like IPND and TESA.  

Self-Service Tools
Our Connect on-line portal allows you to manage your number inventory in real-time, allocating numbers, or a range of numbers to SIP trunks in seconds.

Anti-scam measures
Our anti-scam measures also assist you with scam compliance by monitoring for scam like behaviours and alerting you to the incidents as they are identified.  

Bottom line - we make it easier to operate beyond your home market; by providing regulatory oversight, it need not be an away game.

‍

2. Infrastructure

The Problem:

In order for service providers to support their customers in new regions they need to either build out their domestic network or connect with partner in market. Both options have time and cost trade-offs and implications, especially when shortcuts are taken - limiting capabilities and eroding the quality of your services including poor call quality, call failures, capacity management and increased latency, eroded by aggregators that route traffic between multiple destinations. Aggregators also often come with hidden costs and little visibility into spend.

‍

Symbio’s Solution:

For over 22-years Symbio has invested in building a national, comprehensive carrier interconnect in all its domestic regions - Australia & New Zealand and South-East Asia in Singapore and Malaysia.

The hub concept
Our regional hubs provide access to adjacent markets. You connect once with Symbio and are able to serve multiple regions with multi-carrier connectivity.

Multiple nodes
Having multiple nodes provides a flexible routing path, meaning that if there is an outage Symbio is able to redirect calls, avoiding a single point of failure.

Geo-redundancy
Further reliability is supported through in country  geo-redundancy, operating networking across region and data centers that are linked via high-capacity fibre loops.

‍

3. Capabilities

The Problem:

Service providers may not be able to extend their required feature set across all regions. In ASEAN specifically, there are cases where local laws or practices may require conditions like data sovereignty; or mean that number porting is unavailable; or messaging is one-way only (or entirely unavailable).

‍

Symbio's Solution:

Symbio delivers market-leading wholesale capabilities in Australia and has a roadmap to achieve parity in in both New Zealand and Singapore.  

Service providers are able to deliver consistent quality, and operate with consistent pricing, across multiple regions. They will also have a consistent set of wholesale products: Voice, Messaging, Number Hosting and a common digital experience across countries with portal or API ordering, porting and cancellation of numbers.

‍

In Summary

Picking the right partner can ease entry into new markets by simplifying barriers to entry, leveling the playing field.

If you are looking to expand into new markets, Symbio is here as your Asia-Pacific carrier of choice. Reach out to your Account Manager, or Contact us to find out more.