Batu Prahu, Indonesia

Batu Prahu: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Batu Prahu is a submarine cable landing point located in Indonesia, positioned along the country's coastal infrastructure network. Two submarine cables land at Batu Prahu, both connecting Indonesia to Singapore and both routing through multiple Indonesian island waypoints. These cables form part of a regional corridor linking the Indonesian archipelago — specifically passing through Bangka, Bintan, and Batam — to the city-state of Singapore, making Batu Prahu a node in the short-haul regional connectivity network between Indonesia and Singapore.

The two cables at Batu Prahu, the B3JS and B2JS systems, are closely related in geography and purpose, each threading through a series of Indonesian island stops before terminating in Singapore. Together they reflect a pattern of parallel regional cable investment in the early 2010s, reinforcing the Indonesia–Singapore submarine link through slightly different island routing paths.

Cables Landing at Batu Prahu

The Jakarta-Bangka-Bintan-Batam-Singapore (B3JS) cable stretches 1,031 kilometres and reached ready-for-service status in 2012. As its name indicates, this system connects Indonesia and Singapore, with the route passing through Bangka, Bintan, and Batam along the way. B3JS was published in draft status at the time of recording.

The Jakarta-Bangka-Batam-Singapore (B2JS) cable spans 759 kilometres and reached ready-for-service status in 2013. This system similarly connects Indonesia and Singapore, routing through Bangka and Batam. At 759 kilometres, B2JS is notably shorter than B3JS, reflecting a more direct island-hop path that omits the Bintan waypoint. B2JS carries published status.

Regional Context

Within Indonesia's broad submarine cable landscape — spanning 70 cables across 139 landing points — Batu Prahu ranks in the top 85 percent of landing points by cable count, hosting 2 cables. This places it well behind major Indonesian hubs such as Batam (20 cables), Jakarta (9 cables), and Tanjung Pakis (9 cables), but Batu Prahu's role is specific: both of its cables serve the same regional corridor, reinforcing rather than diversifying its connectivity profile.

Network Role

Batu Prahu functions as a two-cable landing point dedicated entirely to the Indonesia–Singapore regional corridor. Both systems landing here — B3JS and B2JS — traverse the Indonesian island chain before reaching Singapore, meaning Batu Prahu sits at an intermediate or terminus position on short-haul regional cables rather than on intercontinental routes. The near-simultaneous deployment of these two systems in 2012 and 2013 underscores the value placed on route diversity through different island configurations along this same corridor.

In the broader Indonesian submarine cable graph, where connectivity is distributed across 139 landing points and anchored by multi-cable hubs, Batu Prahu represents a focused landing point whose pair of cables consolidates a specific island-routing approach between the Indonesian archipelago and Singapore.