Telin begins construction of new Bifrost cable landing station in JakartaTelin begins construction of new Bifrost cable landing station in Jakarta

Telin has started building a cable landing station connecting Jakarta to Manado, which will now serve as the country's second international gateway.

Gigi Onag, Senior Editor, APAC

June 7, 2024

2 Min Read
Telin broke ground of new Bifrost cable landing station in Jakarta
(Source: Telin)

Telin, Telkom Indonesia's international arm, has started building a cable landing station near Pantai Mutiara in Jakarta for the Bifrost Cable System, which directly connects Singapore to the west coast of North America via Indonesia through the Java Sea and Celebes Sea.

The transpacific cable system, which spans nearly 20,000km, is being funded by a consortium that includes Meta, Telin, Keppel Midgard Holdings and Amazon at an initial cost of approximately $760 million, based on estimates made by the portal site SubmarineNetworks.com. Bifrost has a designed capacity of 10.4 Tbit/s.

According to Telin, Bifrost will enhance connectivity between North America and Southeast Asia, with landing points in Guam, Indonesia, California and Singapore. Each location serves a strategic purpose: Guam as an intermediate point, Indonesia connecting Southeast Asia, Singapore and California as crucial hubs for international data traffic.

Bogi Witjaksono, director of wholesale and international services at Telkom, said the new cable landing station is unique because it connects Jakarta not only to the existing international gateway in Batam but also to Manado, which will now serve as the country's second international gateway supporting the development of eastern Indonesia.

Related:Singtel and Telin to build new subsea cable linking Singapore and Batam

"This innovative route will enhance Telkom Group's network resilience and capacity. It sets a reference for future projects and strengthens our global position," Witjaksono said in a statement issued this week.

Telin CEO Budi Satria Purba added in the same statement: "With the Bifrost cable system from Manado landing at this Jakarta cable landing station, Indonesia now has a second gateway, enhancing global connectivity and regional integration."

Laying out the cables

Bifrost was originally scheduled to start operating in the second quarter of this year, but completion of the project has been moved to early 2025. Media reports in April said that the delay was caused by bad weather and the difficulty of getting the necessary permits from Indonesia.

Telin has been busy in the past two weeks beefing up its subsea cable projects as it seeks to improve Indonesia's connectivity to the outside world.

It has formed a consortium with Singtel to build the 100km Indonesia Singapore Cable System (INSICA) that will connect Singapore and Batam. This new subsea cable system is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Furthermore, Telin has joined forces with BW Digital to build the 10,000km Hawaiki Nui 1 submarine cable system, which will link Australia, Indonesia and Singapore – including optional branches to the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste. It is expected to be ready for service in 2027.

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About the Author

Gigi Onag

Senior Editor, APAC, Light Reading

Gigi Onag is Senior Editor, APAC, Light Reading. She has been a technology journalist for more than 15 years, covering various aspects of enterprise IT across Asia-Pacific.

She started with regional IT publications under CMP Asia (now Informa), including Asia Computer Weekly, Intelligent Enterprise Asia and Network Computing Asia and Teledotcom Asia. This was followed by stints with Computerworld Hong Kong and sister publications FutureIoT and FutureCIO. She had contributed articles to South China Morning Post, TechTarget and PC Market among others.

She interspersed her career as a technology editor with a brief sojourn into public relations before returning to journalism, joining the editorial team of Mix Magazine, a MICE publication and its sister publication Business Traveller Asia Pacific.

Gigi is based in Hong Kong and is keen to delve deeper into the region’s wide wild world of telecoms.

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