How to scale global voice services into Singapore

Communication service providers can struggle to deliver UCaaS outside of North America and Western Europe. Asia-Pacific is often a significant coverage gap.

So how do you extend your voice and messaging coverage into this booming region?

Symbio can help you enter and scale in Asia-Pacific.

With our growing regional coverage and software platform, service providers from any part of the world can ‘switch on’ local services in Australia, New Zealand – and now – Singapore.

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Why Singapore?

The launch of our Singapore network is a huge milestone for Symbio, and our customers.

Singapore is internationally renowned as a regional hub for technology and business, home to major corporations and fast-growing startups. But, in telecom terms, there is little to no digital disruption.

Singapore’s PSTN market is dominated by just three legacy networks. This means the major wholesale providers are also those with the most to lose. It is little wonder that UCaaS and CPaaS challengers can have difficulty accessing local phone numbers and call termination services.

We built our Singapore voice network to open the wholesale market to competition. We’re here to level the playing field.

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Routing depth and quality

Our Singapore network is fully interconnected with all 6 local fixed and mobile carriers (called Facilities Based Operators ‘FBOs’ in Singapore). We’ve invested significant time and money to establish our own direct interconnection to Singtel, M1, Starhub, MyRepublic, Verizon and TPG.

This has two important implications:

1. No single point of failure
It’s easy for voice aggregators to claim ‘Singapore coverage’ when they connect to just one FBO. But a single interconnect is also a single point of failure. So your regional coverage hangs by a thread.

By contrast, our network offers geo-redundancy across two independent data centre locations, with the ability to seamlessly failover calls whilst maintaining complete connectivity to all other Singapore FBOs.  This deeper level of design and investment means there’s no risk of a single point of failure.

2. Direct-to-carrier routing
Often, cut-price aggregators choose to route calls through several intermediary networks, adding latency and reducing quality along the way.

By contrast, when you terminate calls via Symbio, your calls are routed by the most direct path to the local carrier. This direct-to-carrier routing means better quality, reliability and true local call collection and termination.

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Local numbers and porting

Symbio can give you the Singapore voice coverage that nobody else can. We are a Facilities Based Operator (FBO), providing carrier services on par with the Singapore telecom giants. We can allocate our own new Singapore phone numbers. We’re also a party to the porting agreement between FBOs and can assist you to port local numbers away from legacy networks.

At most recent count, Singapore has ~7.6 million Level 6 (PSTN) phone numbers and ~700 thousand Level 3 (VoIP) phone numbers. This makes Level 6 (PSTN) numbers~91% of Singapore’s fixed voice market. A market held tight by legacy networks.

Without access to Level 6 (PSTN) numbers, you’re only able to serve a small portion of Singapore’s business and enterprise market. But with Symbio you can allocate and port Level 6 (PSTN) numbers – helping you win more market share.

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Local Toll-Free Service

As of July 2022 as part of our offerings in Singapore, we also offer a local toll-free service, allowing calls to be made to 1800 from the Singapore PSTN and mobile numbers. This is a significant disruption to the 1800 market in Singapore, as previously this service was expensive and discouraged local enterprises and businesses from using 1800 numbers.

Now it’s easier than ever before to order a toll-free number in the Singapore market.

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Number Hosting

Use Symbio as your in-country carrier with our number hosting services. Number hosting allows Symbio to host your phone numbers on our platform, allowing us to be the go-between for you and your customers.

This gives you the ability to track how your business is being contacted, and understand the location of your incoming calls. We can also provide call masking services, giving you and your customers privacy when placing and receiving calls.

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Ease of connectivity

ISDN E1 links are still a common method of connecting to the Singapore operators. But if your business is built on software in the cloud, why invest in old-world telecom complexity?

With Symbio, you can connect into our platform via SIP. There’s no need for huge investments in network equipment or in-country configuration teams. Our carrier SIP trunks give service providers a flexible, scalable and cost-effective path into the market. So you can ‘switch on’ in Singapore, sooner.

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Local expertise

When customer experience is on the line, there is no substitute for local expertise. That’s why we’ve invested in Singapore-based support and porting teams.

No matter where in the world you or your customers are based, ports and faults can be resolved in the local time zone. We have in-country teams that work closely with the other Singapore carriers,as well as overflow teams in Australia (working to Singapore hours). So you’re never left waiting or wondering.

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Local compliance

Our carriage services are fully compliant with Singaporean regulatory standards. As a Singapore FBO we can directly engage with and respond to the Singapore regulator.

Plus, our local presence means we keep you informed of local compliance changes, and how they may affect your business (though we always advise you to seek independent legal advice).

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Expand your APAC voice coverage with Symbio

Taking your cloud communication service into a new region isn’t fast or easy. If global expansion is part of your growth strategy, chances are that the Asia-Pacific region is near the top of your list.

With Symbio, you have a single provider with a growing APAC presence. Our approach is to own and operate our own network, interconnected with all local fixed and mobile providers. In turn, providing you with unrivalled quality and control over your voice services.

If Asia Pacific is where you want to grow, Symbio can help get you there.