The DNEX Pacific Link (DPL) ship set sail from Jayapura Port to the location where the SMPCS undersea cable is severed (29/5). The ship has reached the severed cable location since 30 May 2021 at 23:21 WITA. The ship is currently pulling the cable to Biak/Sorong, and will continue to Jayapura.

A team of technicians was pulling the SMPCS Sorong segment undersea fibre optic cable on board the DNEX Pacific Link (DPL) ship. The cable was pulled out of a depth of 4,050 meters. The ship will continue to search for the Jayapura segment cable. Telkom Infra, one of Telkom's subsidiaries, is directly supervising the cable repair.

Jakarta, 5 June 2021 – In order to restore services in Jayapura after the severing of the Sumatra Maluku Papua Cable System (SMPCS) , PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (Telkom) has dispatched the DNEX Pacific Link (DPL) Cableship which will repair the SMPCS Biak- Jayapura submarine cable. This SMPCS submarine cable was severed at 4,050 meters deep on the Biak-Jayapura section which disrupted services in Jayapura and its surroundings.

The DPL ship is specifically designed to lay and repair submarine cables. It weighs up to 7,000 tons and is equipped with the best technology, including Dynamic Positioning 2 (DP2) for automation systems with full redundancy, Remote Operated Vehicles (ROV), and plow. The ship can operate to a depth of 10-6,000 meters and can sail non-stop for up to 60 days.

The DPL ship has reached the location where the undersea cable is severed on May 30, 2021 at 23:21 Central Indonesia Time and has conducted an analysis of current conditions, sea contours, and shipping patterns. The ship is currently pulling the cable to Biak/Sorong, and will continue to Jayapura.

The SMPCS submarine cables use repeater technology due to the long distances that they are connecting  requires high voltage. It may be necessary to turn off the repeater when the cable is being repaired but it does not impact on the service because the backup system has been prepared.

To ensure service quality, especially for customers in Biak and Manokwari, Telkom has prepared a backup link to meet the needs when the service is in a normal condition, on which the average traffic for the Biak-Manokwari-Sorong link reaches 40 Gbps and peaks at 20:00 to 22:00, while during other times the total traffic is below 40Gbps. Therefore, Telkom has prepared backups which use the East Palapa Ring Biak-Manokwari-Sorong and Nabire-Timika sections, each has 2x10 Gbps traffic capacity so in total they reached 40 Gbps.

Telkom Vice President of Corporate Communication, Pujo Pramono, said Telkom continues to strive to accelerate the SMPCS cable repair so that people can enjoy TelkomGroup services comfortably as they normally do. 

"There will be a repeater blackout on the SMPCS link Sorong-Manokwari-Biak segment when the cables are being repaired. The blackout does not affect TelkomGroup services, especially Biak and Manokwari since there are adequate backups available. Telkom will try to avoid the blackouts during peak times to maintain Telkom services as normal. We apologize for any services that are not optimal during the repair, as we try to get the cable reconnected and customers can best experience TelkomGroup’s  services,” Pujo said.

Telkom Infra, one of Telkom's subsidiaries, is directly supervising the cable repair and the submarine cable repair is expected to complete in early June 2021.

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