Miri, Malaysia

Miri, Malaysia: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Miri is a coastal city in north-eastern Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, situated near the border with Brunei and approximately 798 kilometres northeast of Kuching. As the second largest city in Sarawak, Miri occupies a notable position on Borneo's north-western coast. One submarine cable lands at Miri, connecting this Bornean city into Malaysia's broader subsea network.

The cable landing at Miri forms part of the Sistem Kabel Rakyat 1Malaysia (SKR1M) system, a domestic cable that connects multiple landing points within Malaysia. This configuration places Miri within an intra-national corridor, linking the city to other Malaysian endpoints across the South China Sea and surrounding waters rather than to international destinations abroad.

Cables Landing at Miri

The Sistem Kabel Rakyat 1Malaysia (SKR1M) is a submarine cable system spanning approximately 3,800 kilometres, with a ready-for-service date of 2017. All endpoints on this cable are located within Malaysia, making SKR1M a domestic system designed to interconnect Malaysian landing points across the country's geographically dispersed territory. For Miri, this cable represents the city's sole submarine connection, linking it to other Malaysian coastal locations through a single continuous system.

Regional Context

Within Malaysia's submarine cable landscape — which encompasses 31 cables across 20 landing points — Miri ranks in the top 60 percent of Malaysian landing points by cable count, hosting one cable. This places Miri well below larger Malaysian hubs such as Penang with six cables, Mersing with five, and Cherating, Kuching, and Melaka each with four. Miri is broadly comparable to Morib, which also hosts three or fewer cables, reflecting a tier of landing points that serve more targeted connectivity roles within the national network.

Network Role

Miri functions as a single-cable terminus on the SKR1M system, connecting this Bornean city to other Malaysian landing points through a purely domestic submarine route. The SKR1M cable, at 3,800 kilometres, is well suited to spanning the considerable maritime distances that separate Peninsular Malaysia from East Malaysian states such as Sarawak and Sabah on Borneo. Miri's position near the Brunei border on Borneo's north-eastern coast means the cable contributes to connectivity within one of Malaysia's more geographically remote urban centres.

As a single-cable landing point serving an intra-Malaysian corridor, Miri represents a focused node rather than a multi-cable hub. Its presence in the regional submarine cable graph underscores the role that domestic cable systems play in bridging the physical separation between Malaysia's eastern and western territories.