Merauke, Indonesia

Merauke, Indonesia: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Merauke is a town in Merauke Regency, South Papua Province, Indonesia, and is recognised as the easternmost city in the country. Situated at Indonesia's far eastern edge, Merauke serves as a submarine cable landing point connecting it to the broader national network. Two submarine cables land at Merauke, linking it to other points within Indonesia and forming part of the country's domestic connectivity infrastructure.

Both cables landing at Merauke are domestic in nature, connecting Indonesian locations to one another rather than reaching overseas destinations. This positions Merauke as a node within Indonesia's intra-archipelago cable network, supporting regional connectivity across the vast island nation. Given its location at the eastern extremity of Indonesia, the cables landing here extend the national submarine cable network into one of its most geographically remote endpoints.

Cables Landing at Merauke

SMPCS Packet-2 is a submarine cable with a total length of 3,498 km, with a ready-for-service date of 2015 and currently carrying draft status. The cable connects multiple landing points within Indonesia, making it a domestic inter-island system. At 3,498 km, it represents a significant reach across the Indonesian archipelago, and its landing at Merauke extends that reach to the country's eastern frontier.

PASELA is a submarine cable in draft status that also connects landing points within Indonesia. No length or ready-for-service date has been confirmed for this cable. Like SMPCS Packet-2, PASELA is a domestic cable, further reinforcing Merauke's role as a terminus within the Indonesian national submarine cable grid.

Regional Context

Within Indonesia's extensive submarine cable landscape — which spans 70 cables across 139 landing points — Merauke ranks in the top 85% of landing points by cable count with its two cables. This places it well behind major Indonesian hubs such as Batam (20 cables), Jakarta (9 cables), and Tanjung Pakis (9 cables), but reflects its position as a smaller, regionally focused landing point serving the country's eastern reaches. Its role is complementary to these larger hubs rather than competitive with them.

Network Role

Merauke functions as a two-cable terminus within Indonesia's domestic submarine cable network. Both cables landing here — SMPCS Packet-2 and PASELA — are confined to Indonesian endpoints, meaning the connectivity enabled at Merauke is intra-national rather than international. This makes Merauke a point of domestic network reach rather than a gateway to foreign cable systems.

In the broader Indonesian submarine cable graph, Merauke represents the easternmost extension of the country's domestic undersea infrastructure. Its presence ensures that one of Indonesia's most geographically distant administrative centres maintains a physical submarine cable connection to the rest of the archipelago.