{"id":192915,"date":"2025-10-06T07:26:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T07:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/192915\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T07:26:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T07:26:16","slug":"bifrost-internet-cable-is-ready-for-service-to-operate-in-coming-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/192915\/","title":{"rendered":"Bifrost internet cable is ready for service, to operate in ‘coming weeks’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tSpanning over 20,000 kilometers, Bifrost links Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, and the US West Coast, with branching units to Jakarta and Manado in Indonesia, and Davao\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Bifrost subsea internet cable system, backed by Meta, Amazon and regional partners, reached \u201cReady for Service (RFS)\u201d status, Converge said, Monday, October 6, and is expected to begin carrying commercial traffic in the coming weeks. The activation marks the culmination of a multiyear effort to create a resilient new data corridor between Southeast Asia and the US.<\/p>\n

Route, specs, strategic merit<\/p>\n

Spanning over 20,000 kilometers, Bifrost links Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, and the US West Coast, with branching units to Jakarta and Manado in Indonesia, and Davao. Keppel says the system delivers more than 260 terabits per second of capacity, and achieves a round-trip latency of under 165 milliseconds (ms) between Singapore and the US \u2014 which it claims is roughly 10 ms faster than many existing transpacific routes.<\/p>\n

One of Bifrost\u2019s differentiators is its path: it bypasses the South China Sea, instead traversing the Java Sea and Celebes Sea before reaching the Pacific. That routing avoids the geopolitically sensitive waters where many existing cables lie \u2014 a strategy meant to reduce vulnerability to conflict, interference, or maritime disruptions.<\/p>\n

Because of that alternate routing, Bifrost is often described as establishing a parallel \u201cdigital highway\u201d that enhances redundancy and reduces risk \u2014 another backbone in the network architecture of the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n

The Bifrost project was first publicly announced in March 2021<\/a>, when Meta (then Facebook), Singapore\u2019s Keppel, and Indonesia\u2019s PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin) committed to build two new transpacific cables, Echo and Bifrost, via a route crossing the Java Sea. In April of that year, Philippine partner Converge <\/a>came on board. <\/p>\n

Converge\u2019s role<\/p>\n

Converge ICT Solutions, Inc. serves as the landing party for the Davao branch. Converge joined the project via agreements with Keppel, and obtained an Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) \u2014 a long-term, permanent contractual right \u2014 on a fiber pair in the main trunk. The company said it landed the Bifrost cable<\/a> in Davao in August 2025. <\/p>\n

\"\"Converge lands the Bifrost cable, the company announced in August 2025<\/p>\n

Dennis Anthony Uy, CEO of Converge, said, \u201cThis will not only boost the company\u2019s international bandwidth capacity, but for the Philippines, it will mean redundancy and diversity in network infrastructure to power the country\u2019s digital journeys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uy also said, quoted by InsiderPH, \u201cWe\u2019ve been receiving intense interest from other ISPs, telcos, and communications operators to purchase capacity on this cable for their redundancy, and we\u2019re ready to meet those wholesale requirements. We believe we will make a healthy return on investment in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indonesia\u2019s Telin, meanwhile, has advanced its own landing station in Manado-Minahasa, breaking ground in late 2024 and formally launching the cable landing station<\/a> (CLS) in July 2025.<\/p>\n

Benefits, risks, and controversies<\/p>\n

For Meta, Bifrost is more than infrastructure \u2014 it\u2019s a strategic asset. The company\u2019s platforms (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) and its growing AI and cloud ambitions are directly dependent on high-capacity, low-latency global connectivity. The addition of Bifrost reinforces Meta\u2019s global backbone and helps close gaps in cross-Pacific routing. <\/p>\n

By offering a second route outside the contested South China Sea, Bifrost strengthens network resilience. If cables in traditional corridors suffer outages \u2014 due to accidents, anchoring, maritime disputes or other risks \u2014 traffic can shift to Bifrost. That redundancy is especially vital for the Philippines, which is subject to frequent storms, cable disruptions, and regional pressure.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) announced plans<\/a> to harness 2 terabits per second of bandwidth from Meta to boost the government\u2019s National Broadband Plan. This builds on the earlier Luzon Bypass Infrastructure (LBI), where Meta is also a partner. The LBI is a 240-kilometer terrestrial corridor connecting Baler, Aurora to San Fernando, La Union. <\/p>\n

Still, questions about sovereignty, control, and data access persist, concerning a growing reliance on Meta-owned assets. <\/p>\n

During the DICT\u2019s budget interpellations in September 2025, ACT Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio voiced these concerns<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Tinio warned: \u201cDapat ultimately kontrolado ng mga Pilipino ang datos ng mga Pilipino \u2026 equally important, ay dapat kontrolado ng mga Pilipino ang sariling network or internet ng Pilipinas \u2026 Bakit po natin tinataya ang buong National Broadband Network sa imprastruktura ng isang US corporation? \u2026 Meta does not recognize the law of the Philippines, but must obey US law. And under US law, the US government wields broad powers for surveillance, especially over foreign governments.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Ultimately, data about Filipinos should be controlled by Filipinos \u2026 equally important, Filipinos should also control the country\u2019s own network or internet infrastructure \u2026 Why are we entrusting the entire National Broadband Network to the infrastructure of a US corporation?)<\/p>\n

He added that \u201cthe benefit of having free access to the infrastructure is outweighed by \u2026 ensuring sovereignty over our network \u2026 that our access is through an entity that is itself under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of our own laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

FPJ Panday Bayanihan partylist Representative Brian Poe, the DICT\u2019s budget sponsor, responded by pointing to safeguards in existing agreements \u2014 such as anti-DDoS clauses, arbitration mechanisms under international law \u2014 and noting ongoing efforts to diversify connectivity sources, including engagement with Japanese partners.<\/p>\n

More upcoming Meta cable systems<\/p>\n

Meta continues to expand its subsea portfolio: its newly announced Candle cable<\/a> (to be deployed circa 2028) will connect Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore with 24 fiber pairs and up to 570 Tbps in capacity. With these moves, Meta becomes a larger part of the very infrastructure enabling digital connectivity, especially in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The new Candle cable is said to have more than double the capacity and about twice less the latency than the recent cables including the Bifrost system. \u2013 Rappler.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spanning over 20,000 kilometers, Bifrost links Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, and the US West Coast, with branching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[64,63,237,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-192915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}