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

The Bifrost subsea internet cable system, backed by Meta, Amazon and regional partners, reached “Ready for Service (RFS)” 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.

Route, specs, strategic merit

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 — which it claims is roughly 10 ms faster than many existing transpacific routes.

One of Bifrost’s 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 — a strategy meant to reduce vulnerability to conflict, interference, or maritime disruptions.

Because of that alternate routing, Bifrost is often described as establishing a parallel “digital highway” that enhances redundancy and reduces risk — another backbone in the network architecture of the Asia-Pacific region.

The Bifrost project was first publicly announced in March 2021, when Meta (then Facebook), Singapore’s Keppel, and Indonesia’s 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 came on board.

Converge’s role

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) — a long-term, permanent contractual right — on a fiber pair in the main trunk. The company said it landed the Bifrost cable in Davao in August 2025.

Converge lands the Bifrost cable, the company announced in August 2025

Dennis Anthony Uy, CEO of Converge, said, “This will not only boost the company’s international bandwidth capacity, but for the Philippines, it will mean redundancy and diversity in network infrastructure to power the country’s digital journeys.”

Uy also said, quoted by InsiderPH, “We’ve been receiving intense interest from other ISPs, telcos, and communications operators to purchase capacity on this cable for their redundancy, and we’re ready to meet those wholesale requirements. We believe we will make a healthy return on investment in this area.”

Indonesia’s Telin, meanwhile, has advanced its own landing station in Manado-Minahasa, breaking ground in late 2024 and formally launching the cable landing station (CLS) in July 2025.

Benefits, risks, and controversies

For Meta, Bifrost is more than infrastructure — it’s a strategic asset. The company’s 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’s global backbone and helps close gaps in cross-Pacific routing.

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

Earlier this year, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) announced plans to harness 2 terabits per second of bandwidth from Meta to boost the government’s 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.

Still, questions about sovereignty, control, and data access persist, concerning a growing reliance on Meta-owned assets.

During the DICT’s budget interpellations in September 2025, ACT Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio voiced these concerns.

Tinio warned: “Dapat ultimately kontrolado ng mga Pilipino ang datos ng mga Pilipino … equally important, ay dapat kontrolado ng mga Pilipino ang sariling network or internet ng Pilipinas … Bakit po natin tinataya ang buong National Broadband Network sa imprastruktura ng isang US corporation? … 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.”

(Ultimately, data about Filipinos should be controlled by Filipinos … equally important, Filipinos should also control the country’s own network or internet infrastructure … Why are we entrusting the entire National Broadband Network to the infrastructure of a US corporation?)

He added that “the benefit of having free access to the infrastructure is outweighed by … ensuring sovereignty over our network … that our access is through an entity that is itself under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of our own laws.”

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

More upcoming Meta cable systems

Meta continues to expand its subsea portfolio: its newly announced Candle cable (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.

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. – Rappler.com