Singtel and four of its regional mobile associates have entered a collaboration agreement aimed at stimulating the gaming and eSports ecosystem in Southeast Asia, Australia and India.
Singtel and wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Optus have signed agreements with India's Bharti Airtel, Thailand's AIS, the Philippines' Globe Telecom and Indonesia's Telkomsel covering areas including scaling up eSports, content creation and distribution.
Singtel, Optus, Airtel, AIS, Globe and Telkomsel plan to jointly develop solutions and services for gamers and fans across the region, including providing access to local, regional and global eSports competitions, original content and exclusive programming.
The agreement was signed at the Singtel Group's first multi-title and regional eSports league championship - the PVP Esports Championship - over the weekend.
The Singtel Group has announced plans to leverage its telco assets and regional mobile customer base of more than 700 million to pursue opportunities to encourage eSports development.
Singtel also used the championship event to unveil its new ultra-fast fiber broadband service for Singapore gamers, which includes 1Gbps of dedicated gaming bandwidth and another 1Gbps for general internet usage.
“Gaming is part of a digital world without borders, where fast network speeds, connectivity and local market knowledge are critical. It is a natural and perfect fit for Singtel and our partners,” Singtel International CEO Arthur Lang said.
“We are committed to working as a group to better serve the gamers in our networks, and in the region. We hope to play a major regional role as an enabler of eSports, to collectively grow the gaming ecosystem, and give gamers the support and recognition they deserve.”