Sungai Kakap, Indonesia

Sungai Kakap: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Sungai Kakap is a district in Kubu Raya Regency, West Kalimantan province, located on the island of Borneo in Indonesia, south of the city of Pontianak. As a coastal location on Borneo's western shore, it serves as a submarine cable landing point connecting the island to broader regional networks. Two submarine cables land at Sungai Kakap, making it a modest but functional node within Indonesia's submarine cable infrastructure.

The two cables landing here serve distinct connectivity purposes. JAKABARE links Sungai Kakap internationally to Singapore, while Tanjung Pandan-Sungai Kakap connects it domestically to another Indonesian landing point. Together, these cables position Sungai Kakap as a point that supports both international and inter-island connectivity, bridging western Borneo toward Singapore on one route and toward the Indonesian island of Belitung on another.

Cables Landing at Sungai Kakap

JAKABARE is a submarine cable with a length of 1,330 km that reached ready-for-service status in 2009. The cable connects landing points in Indonesia and Singapore, providing Sungai Kakap with a direct international link toward Singapore from the western coast of Borneo. It remains one of the earlier international cable connections to reach this part of Kalimantan.

Tanjung Pandan-Sungai Kakap is a shorter domestic cable spanning 348 km, which entered service in 2019. It connects two Indonesian landing points — Tanjung Pandan, located on the island of Belitung, and Sungai Kakap on Borneo. This cable supports intra-Indonesian connectivity, linking Borneo to the Bangka-Belitung island group through an entirely domestic route.

Regional Context

Within Indonesia's submarine cable landscape — which spans 70 cables across 139 landing points — Sungai Kakap's two cables place it in the top 85% of landing points by cable count nationally. However, it remains well below the scale of major Indonesian hubs such as Batam (20 cables), Jakarta (9 cables), or Tanjung Pakis (9 cables). Sungai Kakap serves a more localised role compared to these higher-density landing points.

Network Role

Sungai Kakap functions as a dual-purpose landing point, supporting both international and domestic submarine cable routes. The JAKABARE cable provides a link from western Borneo toward Singapore, while the Tanjung Pandan-Sungai Kakap cable extends connectivity across Indonesian waters to Belitung. With two cables in service, Sungai Kakap is not a single-cable terminus but hosts a small, complementary pair of connections that address different geographic corridors.

Within the broader Indonesian submarine cable graph, Sungai Kakap represents the western Borneo coast as a landing location — a region that otherwise sees limited cable density compared to Java or the Sumatra-facing island groups — giving the Pontianak area a direct point of submarine cable access to both international and inter-island routes.