Truely has signed bilateral carrier agreements with six additional network operators across Southeast Asia, completing the company's ASEAN regional coverage footprint. The new agreements add Viettel and Mobifone in Vietnam, Telkomsel and XL Axiata in Indonesia, and Globe Telecom and PLDT Smart in the Philippines.
Combined with existing agreements in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia, the additions mean Truely's ASEAN regional plan now covers all ten ASEAN member nations through at least one carrier agreement in each country.
Why Southeast Asia Matters for Truely
The ASEAN travel corridor is the single highest-frequency short-haul business travel market in the world by trip count per capita. Singapore Changi Airport processes more international passengers than any other airport in Southeast Asia, and a significant portion of those passengers are intra-ASEAN travelers — business routes to Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and Ho Chi Minh City dominate the Changi departure board.
Singapore is also Truely's home market. CEO Simon Landsheer was based at Changi when he first encountered the problem Truely was built to solve: arriving in Jakarta on a Tuesday morning with no local SIM, no data, and 45 minutes to fill before the first meeting. The ASEAN expansion feels personal in that sense — this is the use case the product was designed for.
Beyond Truely's founding story, the data on ASEAN travel growth is compelling. The ASEAN Tourism Association projected intra-ASEAN travel to grow at 8–12% annually through 2027. Business travel within the region recovered to pre-pandemic levels faster than anywhere else in Asia-Pacific, and the ASEAN Economic Community's progressive reduction in cross-border business restrictions continues to drive intra-regional commerce.
Vietnam: Viettel and Mobifone
Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing eSIM adoption markets in Southeast Asia. Both Viettel and Mobifone launched consumer eSIM plans in 2022, and Viettel's eSIM subscriber count grew faster than any other major carrier in ASEAN in 2023 based on GSMA subscriber data.
The Truely Vietnam plan routes through Viettel as primary carrier, with Mobifone as fallback. Viettel has the broadest geographic coverage in Vietnam — 85% of the country's territory compared to Mobifone's 72%. For travelers staying in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang, both carriers provide strong LTE. For travelers visiting rural areas or the Mekong Delta, Viettel's broader coverage matters.
Hotspot sharing is included in the Vietnam plan. VoIP services work without restriction. Average download speeds in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City run 30–80 Mbps on LTE during off-peak hours.
Indonesia: Telkomsel and XL Axiata
Indonesia presents a unique coverage challenge: it's an archipelago of over 17,000 islands. No single carrier provides meaningful coverage across all of them, and the practical coverage question for most travelers is specifically about Java, Bali, Sumatra, and the major inter-island travel corridors.
Truely's Indonesia plan uses Telkomsel as primary. Telkomsel has the largest coverage footprint in Indonesia by a significant margin — approximately 95% of the population on Java and Bali, and meaningful coverage in Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi. XL Axiata provides complementary coverage in urban areas where network congestion on Telkomsel can degrade speeds.
For travelers in Bali specifically: coverage in Seminyak, Kuta, Ubud, and Nusa Dua is strong on both Telkomsel and XL. The Kecak Temple area in Uluwatu and some hill areas above 600m in the central highlands have variable signal. This is consistent across all carriers, not specific to travel eSIM.
Indonesia is one of the markets where hotspot speed throttling is most likely to affect heavy users. Truely's plan includes hotspot functionality, but sustained laptop workloads through a mobile hotspot in Indonesia will typically stabilize at 10–20 Mbps rather than the peak LTE speeds available on the phone directly.
Philippines: Globe and PLDT Smart
The Philippines has two major national carriers: Globe Telecom and PLDT Smart. Both have expanded their LTE networks significantly since 2021, with 5G now available in Metro Manila and Cebu City on both carriers.
Coverage outside Metro Manila and Cebu is the persistent limitation. The Philippines has over 7,000 islands, and inter-island travel on smaller vessels (bangka boats between Palawan islands, for example) will typically result in signal loss for portions of the journey. For travelers confining their itinerary to Metro Manila, Cebu, and Boracay, coverage is reliable on both Globe and PLDT.
Truely routes through Globe as primary in the Philippines, with PLDT as fallback. Globe has slightly better coverage in Metro Manila's business districts (BGC, Makati, Ortigas). PLDT Smart has slightly better coverage in some Visayas and Mindanao cities where Globe's investment lagged.
What Full ASEAN Coverage Enables
The practical benefit of completing the ASEAN coverage footprint is simple: travelers making multi-country trips within ASEAN can now use a single Truely regional plan rather than purchasing separate country plans. Previously, a traveler on a Singapore–Jakarta–Manila circuit needed a Singapore plan and separate plans for Indonesia and the Philippines — countries that weren't on the regional bundle.
With the new carrier agreements in place, the ASEAN regional bundle covers all ten countries with automatic carrier selection in each market. One plan purchase, one QR code, ten countries. The regional bundle pricing ($14.99 per week) is more economical than three separate country plans for the same duration.
Upcoming Coverage Expansions
Following the ASEAN completion, Truely's carrier team is working on agreements in three additional priority markets: Bangladesh (Grameenphone, Robi), Sri Lanka (Dialog, SLT-Mobitel), and Nepal (Ncell). All three are in active negotiation. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are expected to come online in Q2 2025; Nepal is scheduled for Q3 2025.
South Asia expansion aligns with Truely's investor 1982 Ventures' regional focus and with emerging demand patterns — the Singapore-to-Dhaka business route has grown significantly as Bangladesh's garment and tech sectors expand. Coverage in Dhaka and Chittagong for business travelers is the immediate use case that carrier agreements in Bangladesh are designed to serve.