FlexiRoam Signs Landmark Two-Year Agreement with Etihad Airways

Global connectivity provider FlexiRoam (ASX: FRX) has locked in a major two-year enterprise agreement with national carrier Etihad Airways, consolidating three core operational use cases under a single recurring subscription framework.

The agreement marks a significant operational milestone for FlexiRoam, validating its enterprise platform's ability to serve tier-one airlines across diverse global workflows.

Under the master agreement, FlexiRoam will manage pooled data allowances for Etihad personnel, onboard aircraft routers, and pilot flight iPads across more than 125 countries.

The deal also establishes a formal framework to introduce additional services over time, including potential passenger-facing and loyalty programme connectivity.

What is FlexiRoam?

For investors and industry observers unfamiliar with the company, FlexiRoam is a telecommunications technology platform that provides global mobile data connectivity.

Rather than operating as a traditional telecommunications network provider, FlexiRoam acts as an enterprise enabler.

It delivers connectivity through physical SIMs and digital eSIM technology across more than 190 countries by partnering with over 600 global telecom carriers.

The company operates across two main markets:

• Travel Connectivity: Providing global roaming data directly to consumers (B2C) and through enterprise white-label partnerships (B2B2C), such as travel insurance and credit card reward programmes.
• B2B Solutions: Providing corporate fleet connectivity and Internet of Things (IoT) data management across payments, agriculture, logistics, and aviation sectors.

Instead of managing individual phone plans, enterprises use the FlexiRoam Partner Portal to manage centralised "data pools," enabling companies to distribute, monitor, and regulate data across thousands of connected employees and operational devices worldwide.

A structural feature of that model is that FlexiRoam owns no network of its own—its SIMs and eSIMs are carrier-agnostic, moving between partner networks rather than being tied to a single operator.

For assets that cross borders or move between coverage areas, that is the difference between a connection that holds and one that drops.

“Being a roaming provider who’s carrier-agnostic is a really big advantage,” FlexiRoam chief financial officer Grant Wong said.

“You might not get one carrier’s coverage in a certain area, then you get another. You move over.”

Removing the Industry’s Biggest Blocker

Alongside its connectivity infrastructure, FlexiRoam operates what it describes on its own assessment of the market at the time of its launch in December 2025, as the world’s first AI eSIM agent.

The agent runs inside WhatsApp. A user can find, purchase, activate, and manage a data plan by text, voice note, or screenshot, in more than 70 languages, without downloading an application. FlexiRoam says setup completes in under three minutes.

Its commercial significance sits on the enterprise side. Embedding connectivity into a large brand’s customer proposition has historically required an integration project: APIs, software development kits, application releases, and security review. That requirement is the principal reason such partnerships stall.

“Every time you do a partnership, the gatekeeper is always the tech team,” FlexiRoam chief executive Jefrey Ong said.

“All the excitement happens, and then you say let’s roll this out to our customers, and then let’s talk to the tech guy. And then it just dies there.”

Zero-Integration Approach

FlexiRoam’s response is an approach it calls zero-integration.

The partner shares a link. The link opens a conversation branded to that partner, and FlexiRoam handles provisioning, activation and support behind it. No application update, no software development kit, no app store release cycle.

“It’s just a link,” Ong said. “When you click, it goes to FlexiRoam and we white-label everything for you. And we just enable you to be a telco.”

The practical effect is to move the decision out of a development roadmap and into a commercial one, compressing deployment from months to days.

Travel insurer Tune Protect, AirAsia’s insurance partner, already distributes FlexiRoam data this way, with policyholders activating their entitlement directly from a policy confirmation.

The Rise of Connected Aviation and Embedded Data

The partnership comes as global industries increasingly move away from fragmented, country-by-country roaming agreements towards unified, cloud-managed global profiles.

In modern aviation, operational efficiency relies heavily on constant, secure real-time communication:

• Cockpit digitisation: Pilots rely on digital tablets (iPads) for live flight itineraries, weather updates, technical manuals, and operational documentation on the ground.
• Aircraft telemetry: Ground crews and aircraft systems must rapidly offload operational diagnostic data while on the tarmac to maintain schedule integrity.
• Global workforces: International flight crews require seamless, multi-network roaming across dozens of transit countries without incurring unpredictable carrier fees.

Beyond aviation, the broader corporate sector is accelerating the adoption of embedded connectivity—integrating data directly into hardware workflows such as point-of-sale payment terminals, fleet management systems, and national infrastructure.

Expanding the Etihad Relationship

The newly signed two-year master agreement brings several previously separate initiatives under one enterprise umbrella while introducing new operational layers:

1. Staff Connectivity: Multi-network roaming data pools for Etihad’s international staff across the airline's global route network.
2. Aircraft Operational Data: SIM and eSIM deployments inside onboard aircraft routers to transfer operational data and support crew devices while aircraft are grounded.
3. Pilot iPad Connectivity: Dedicated data pools for pilot devices used for rosters, manuals, and operational updates prior to takeoff.

The master agreement operates on a recurring monthly subscription model based on data pool access, provisioning fees, and usage-based charges.

While contract revenue depends on deployment rates and data consumption, the partnership underscores FlexiRoam's broader strategic pivot towards high-margin, contracted recurring revenue.

Recurring revenue represented 55% of the company's total revenue in FY26, reaching 66% in the fourth quarter.

Strategic Optionality

A key element of the agreement is the potential expansion into consumer-facing channels (B2B2C).

FlexiRoam already operates this structure at scale. Its flagship channel is a partnership with Mastercard, under which issuing banks fund a data entitlement attached to a card and the cardholder receives it as a benefit. As at 30 June 2026 that covered 1,270 card programs across 418 issuing banks in 78 countries.

The same partner-funded model operates with travel insurer Tune Protect.

The framework with Etihad leaves the door open to a comparable arrangement, such as airline-funded data roaming for loyalty members or international passengers, subject to separate terms to be agreed.

As commercial aviation and corporate workflows become increasingly reliant on seamless global data, FlexiRoam's multi-use platform offers a practical case study in how embedded connectivity is replacing traditional telecom infrastructure.