Supiori, Indonesia

Supiori, Indonesia: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Supiori is a regency located in the Indonesian province of Papua, situated in the far eastern reaches of the Indonesian archipelago. As an island territory in this remote region, Supiori's connection to submarine cable infrastructure reflects Indonesia's broader effort to extend digital connectivity across its vast and geographically dispersed island nation. Two submarine cables land at Supiori, linking it into the national network through entirely domestic cable corridors.

Both cables landing at Supiori connect exclusively to other points within Indonesia, meaning this landing point serves as a node within the country's intra-national submarine cable framework rather than as an international gateway. The cables — Palapa Ring East and Patara-2 — together support regional connectivity across the eastern portions of the archipelago, an area that has historically faced geographic barriers to reliable telecommunications.

Cables Landing at Supiori

Palapa Ring East is a submarine cable system stretching 6,300 kilometres, with a ready-for-service date of 2019. The cable connects multiple landing points across Indonesia, forming part of the national Palapa Ring initiative designed to bring connectivity to underserved regions of the country, including the eastern provinces of Papua.

Patara-2 is a shorter cable system measuring 1,200 kilometres in length, with a ready-for-service date of 2023. Like Palapa Ring East, Patara-2 connects landing points entirely within Indonesia, extending the domestic submarine cable network to serve communities in and around Supiori.

Regional Context

Within Indonesia's submarine cable landscape — which spans 70 cables across 139 landing points — Supiori ranks among the more modestly connected locations, hosting 2 cables compared to major hubs such as Batam (20 cables), Jakarta (9 cables), and Tanjung Pakis (9 cables). Nevertheless, Supiori's position in the top 85 percent of Indonesian landing points by cable count reflects the significance of extending domestic cable infrastructure into Papua. Its role is distinctly regional rather than international, complementing the denser cable concentrations found in Java and Sulawesi.

Network Role

Supiori functions as a domestic connectivity node within Indonesia's eastern submarine cable network. With two cables terminating here — both operating exclusively within Indonesian waters — the landing point supports intra-national data routing for a regency with a population of approximately 24,500 people as of mid-2024. The combination of the long-haul Palapa Ring East and the shorter Patara-2 system provides Supiori with a degree of path diversity within the national network.

As a two-cable landing point in a remote island regency of Papua, Supiori illustrates how Indonesia has extended its domestic submarine cable grid to reach communities far from the country's main connectivity centres. In the broader Indonesian submarine cable graph, Supiori represents the reach of domestic infrastructure into the archipelago's easternmost territories.