Jakarta, 31 March 2021 – PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (Telkom) through its subsidiary PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin), Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation Limited (Keppel T&T), through its subsidiary, Keppel Midgard Holdings Pte. Ltd. (KMH) and a subsidiary of Facebook Inc. (Facebook) will develop a submarine cable communication system that directly connects Indonesia with Singapore and America.

The submarine cable communication system (SKKL), named Bifrost is more than 15,000 km long and is expected to complete in early 2024. When it is fully operational, the SKKL Bifrost will become a submarine cable that has high-speed transmission, advanced and latest technology and the largest capacity across Asia Pacific.

“TelkomGroup through Telin invests and becomes a member of the Bifrost submarine cable consortium with Facebook and Keppel. TelkomGroup is not just a partner to dock or a landing party for SKKL Bifrost, but we actually invest and have voting rights in the consortium. Telin owns 100 percent of the SKKL segment anchored to Jakarta. This is clear evidence that TelkomGroup maintains the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia in the submarine cable business," Dian Rachmawan, Telkom Wholesale & International Service Director said. 

This arrangement is expected to be a milestone of cooperation between telecommunications operators and OTT (Over The Top) such as Facebook in building telecommunications infrastructure while still taking into account the interests and sovereignty of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia in terms of security, economy (taxes) as well as maintaining a healthy competition in the telecommunication industry. 

The construction of the Bifrost SKKL also shows TelkomGroup's commitment to developing digital infrastructure to support digital economic growth in Indonesia. The Bifrost SKKL is expected to strengthen Indonesia's global connectivity with large capacity and the latest technology so that it meets Indonesia’s needs of a very large internet bandwidth, in addition to increasing the reliability of the international submarine cable system, especially for the US routes. In addition, along the Bifrost SKKL branching units towards Balikpapan and Manado are also being prepared,  which will later be used to anticipate infrastructure needs in the new capital city and eastern Indonesia. Previously, Telin had also built the Indonesia Global Gateway (IGG) submarine cable and the SEA US cable connecting Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and America.

The soaring demand for global data bandwidth doesn't just occur in Indonesia, but also in the region. The increasing adoption of cloud technology (cloud computing), the need for high-resolution video streaming, the exponential growth in mobile devices use and the development of 5G technology have triggered the increasing demand for global connection capacity through submarine cable systems in the Asia Pacific region. The construction of the Bifrost submarine cable makes Telin one of the top players in submarine cable supply in the Asia Pacific region. Telin currently operates various international submarine cables such as Thailand-Indonesia-Singapore (TIS), Dumai-Malaka Cable System (DMCS), Asia-America Gateway (AAG), South East Asia Japan Cable (SJC), South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe (SEA-ME-WE) 5, Indonesia Global Gateway (IGG), and SouthEast Asia-United States (SEA-US) Cable.