This international fiber optic transmission infrastructure is the most crucial means of connecting Indonesia and Singapore via the shortest route across the Singapore Strait.

The submarine cable’s landing ceremony was attended by Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto and Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong.

Airlangga welcomed the inauguration of the NCC as a concrete step toward Indonesia's digital transformation under the leadership of President Prabowo Subianto, emphasizing the country’s status as one of the largest digital markets in Asia with 235.26 million internet users as well as the fourth-largest potential artificial intelligence market in Asia after China, India and Japan.

"Today, we are not just celebrating the landing of the submarine cable but also a stronger digital connection between two neighboring countries. Batam is growing rapidly as Indonesia's digital gateway, and this infrastructure forms the physical foundation of a new digital corridor," the senior minister said on Monday.

Meanwhile, Gan emphasized the importance of the strategic partnership between the two neighbors in the face of global economic uncertainty.

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"In a more uncertain global environment, it is even more important for Singapore and Indonesia to continue strengthening our partnership," he said, noting that digital infrastructure had become a key foundation for modern economic growth, particularly in supporting AI technology and secure and reliable cross-border data processing.

"Our strengths between Batam and Singapore, between Indonesia and Singapore, are complementary. Singapore brings global connectivity, a trusted business environment and links to companies and customers around the world. Indonesia brings scale, talent, land for future growth and significant potential in renewable energy," Gan added.

The NCC’s landing serves as a strategic step to strengthen national digital sovereignty and position Batam as a key digital gateway in Southeast Asia. To that end, Telkom Group has collaborated with BW Digital, with the support of the Nongsa Digital Park (NDP), as a strategic partner to accelerate the transformation of the data center ecosystem, cloud computing services and hyperscale AI processing.

Ensuring low latency for AI, cloud computing

Telkom president director Dian Siswarini highlighted that establishing the shortest route across the Singapore Strait offered remarkable technical advantages, as doing so drastically reduced data transmission latency to below 2 milliseconds, which was essential for the future digital ecosystem.

“The shorter the distance, the lower the latency," Dian explained, adding that the NCC would address the increasing need for low bandwidth capacity to support AI development and cloud computing hyperscalers, among others.

She also emphasized that the NCC infrastructure represented a continuation of the mandate of state-owned enterprise shareholders, so that Telkom not only served the domestic market but was also able to independently connect Indonesia with other continents and countries around the world.

To optimize the absorption of the NCC’s cable network capacity by the global wholesale and hyperscaler markets, Telin designed its international network infrastructure architecture on four key pillars: Unique Route, providing route diversification so that the international backbone does not rely on a single cable; Low Latency, using rigorous calculations to ensure fast, real-time application processing; Diversified Landing Station, ensuring that cables land at different Cable Landing Stations (CLS) on land and at sea to mitigate technical disruptions; and Direct Access, providing customers with the freedom to connect data center to data center directly without disruption or middlemen.

Telin president director Abdul Rahman Ansori said the company was focused on developing its business internationally, as well as ensuring that every piece of infrastructure it built was part of the development of the national digital infrastructure that formed the backbone of the digital economy.

Once the cable was fully operational, he continued, Telin would rely on a two-pronged collaboration strategy: synergizing outwardly with world-class carriers and hyperscalers while collaborating internally with all domestic telecommunications industry players.

Strengthening Indonesia’s digital sovereignty

The NCC project has also received the full attention of Danantara Indonesia, the state-owned enterprise portfolio manager.

Setyanto Hantoro, business managing director 2 at Danantara, views the NCC digital infrastructure project as a national strategic asset that plays a fundamental role in Indonesia's economic sovereignty.

"The digital sovereignty built by the Telkom Group is a digital infrastructure that drives the growth of innovation, competitiveness and other industries. This isn't just about the [submarine] cable between Singapore and Batam but rather a catalytic infrastructure that will drive the growth of AI, data centers and even the manufacturing and service industries," Setyanto said.

To extend the impact of this international infrastructure beyond Batam, the Telkom Group continues to distribute international gateways to other regions.

Telkom's director of wholesale and international services, Budi Satria Dharma Purba, said digital infrastructure sovereignty was being realized by opening four international gateways in various directions.

In addition to Batam for the westbound gateway, Telkom has built an international gateway in North Sulawesi capital Manado for direct connectivity to the United States via the IGG, SEA-US and Bifrost cables. In the future, new international lines are being designed to connect southern Indonesia to Australia as well as to Southeast Asian territories such as the Philippines and Hong Kong.

"To ensure equitable distribution of infrastructure and internet access nationally, we are also extending these gateways to several major cities such as Jakarta and Surabaya. Several new international cables are even planned to land directly in Surabaya to ensure more equitable distribution of internet access throughout Indonesia," Budi explained.

Multiplier effect on Batam economy

Although oriented toward international data networks, the NCC submarine cable project is expected to have a wide multiplier effect on the economy of Batam city. The cable landing has become a major magnet, triggering a boom in investment in data centers and technology-based industrial areas on Batam Island.

The Telkom management emphasized the presence of the NCC project would automatically absorb local labor, engage local contractors for the physical construction of land segments and landing stations (beach manhole stations) and revitalize the surrounding business ecosystem.

Meanwhile, the high-speed connectivity the NCC provides will make the Batam region more competitive in attracting foreign investment while also opening opportunities for local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to connect to the broader global digital trade ecosystem.

The NCC development project also serves as an initial stepping stone for Telkom Group in mastering international networks in the region. The company is currently finalizing discussions with Malaysian telecommunication operators to build a new submarine cable route connecting Batam with Johor, which is targeted for completion within the next two years.

This integrated expansion is expected to further strengthen the position of the Singapore-Batam-Johor AI infrastructure triangle as the largest data and computing ecosystem center in Southeast Asia.

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