Dili, Timor-Leste

Dili, Timor-Leste: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Dili is the capital and largest city of Timor-Leste, situated on the northern coast of the island of Timor. As the country's sole submarine cable landing point, Dili serves as the single gateway through which Timor-Leste connects to the international submarine cable network. Two submarine cables are scheduled to land at Dili: the Asia Connect Cable-1 (ACC-1) and Hawaiki Nui 1, both of which are currently in draft status with projected ready-for-service dates in 2027 and 2028 respectively.

Together, these two cables position Dili within a broad regional corridor spanning Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and beyond. ACC-1 extends Dili's connectivity toward major hubs including Singapore, Australia, and the United States, while Hawaiki Nui 1 links the city into a regional Pacific network encompassing Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Singapore. The combination of an intercontinental cable and a regional Pacific cable gives Dili access to two distinct but complementary connectivity corridors.

Cables Landing at Dili, Timor-Leste

Asia Connect Cable-1 (ACC-1) is a submarine cable system with a total length of approximately 19,000 km, with a draft ready-for-service date of 2028. In addition to Dili, ACC-1 lands in Australia, Guam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and the United States. The cable spans an intercontinental corridor connecting Southeast Asia and the Pacific to North America.

Hawaiki Nui 1 is a submarine cable system spanning approximately 10,000 km, with a draft ready-for-service date of 2027. Beyond Dili, Hawaiki Nui 1 lands in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, and the Solomon Islands. The cable establishes a regional Pacific corridor linking Timor-Leste with Southeast Asian hubs and island nations of the southwestern Pacific.

Regional Context

Dili is the only submarine cable landing point in Timor-Leste, meaning it concentrates all of the country's submarine cable infrastructure at a single location. The two cables scheduled to land here represent the entirety of Timor-Leste's international submarine cable connectivity, with the first of the two systems expected to become ready for service in 2027.

Network Role

Dili functions as a dual-cable terminus for Timor-Leste, hosting both of the country's planned international submarine cable connections. ACC-1 provides an intercontinental link reaching as far as the United States via Guam, while Hawaiki Nui 1 delivers regional connectivity across the southwestern Pacific and into Southeast Asia. The two systems together serve distinct but complementary routing functions, one oriented toward trans-Pacific long-haul traffic and the other toward intra-regional Pacific connectivity.

As the sole landing point in Timor-Leste, Dili occupies a position of complete national concentration within the country's submarine cable graph. Its inclusion on two separate cable systems with different geographic footprints means that, once both cables reach service, the city will offer at least a degree of route diversity for international connectivity. This makes Dili a notable node within the broader Southeast Asia and Pacific submarine cable network.