Telkom contracts NEC for new subsea cable

Indonesia’s PT Telkom has contracted NEC to build a cable system connecting six of the nation’s large islands with Singapore.

The Indonesia Global Gateway Cable System will link the islands of Sumatra, Batam, Java, Bali, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

As well as providing enhanced connectivity between nine major Indonesian cities, the cable will link to Singapore and provide direct connectivity with two international subsea cables that land in Europe and the US respectively.

The 100Gbps, eight wavelength, four fiber pair cable system will span around 5,300km in total. It is scheduled for completion in early 2018.

“NEC is honored to be selected once again by Telkom as the supplier of an optical fiber submarine cable system, the advanced 100Gb/s IGG system,” NEC general manager for submarine networks Toru Kawauchi said.

“Since first building an optical fiber submarine cable system for Telkom in 1991, NEC has continuously helped to expand Indonesia’s domestic connectivity, the Papua Cable System (SMPCS) being the latest such contribution.”

The Sulawesi Maluku Papua Cable System connects eight provinces in eastern Indonesia – East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, North Maluku, North Sulawesi, Papua, Southeast Sulawesi, South Sulawesi and West Papua.

The nine cities that will be connected via the IGG system are Dumai, Batam, Jakarta, Madura, Bali, Makassar, Bilikpapan, Takaran and Manado.