Submarine cable projects connecting Indonesia with international backbones are expected to be completed around last quarter this year. Meanwhile, nine companies are planning to build it in near time. These will surely cut the already declining Internet bandwidth cost deeper.

Excelcom’s Batam Rengit Cable System (BRCS) connecting Indonesia and Malaysia is scheduled to operate in September this year. BRCS consist of 63 kilometers submarine cable and will have initial capacity of 10Gbps dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM). BRCS will connect to Telekom Malaysia’s (TM) international backbone to Europe and US. Connection to US will go through Asia American Gateway (AAG) -a consortium of 17 Telco’s in Asia Pacific and US to roll out 19.000 kilometers of submarine cable.

Other AAG consortium member, Indosat is investing up to US$50 million this year to build submarine cables connecting Jakarta - Singapore, Jakarta - Batam, Batam - Singapore and Batam Pontianak.

Another project is by network access provider (NAP) Moratel (PT Mora Telematika Indonesia) with Moratelindo International Cable System 1 (MIC-1) connecting Batam and Singapore with land and submarine cable. Moratel is working with Singapore based ViewQwest for this US$12 million project. The 70 kilometers repeaterless cable will have initial capacity of 10Gbps of DWDM is scheduled to operate first quarter 2008.

Telkom is expected to build new lines as their Jasuka (Jawa, Sumatra, Kalimantan) line will soon reach maximum capacity due to cellular phone traffic. Jasuka is used by submarine TIS (Thailand Indonesia Singapore) to deliver 10Gpbs bandwidth for Telkom Speedy -Telkom’s broadband service). Meanwhile, Detik.com reported nine companies are planning to roll out submarine cables. But so far, only two already submitted letter of intent.

Topik: Infrastructure, Operator, Rumor, Telco