Georgia to Indonesia: 318ms the Long Way
Based on real RIPE Atlas measurements from GeoCables monitoring infrastructure, March 2026
Indonesia is 7,000km east of Georgia — practically a neighbor compared to the Philippines or Japan. A direct route via the Middle East and India would take perhaps 100–120ms. But our traceroute shows an almost identical path to the Georgia→Philippines route: west through Europe, across the Atlantic, across the US, and finally across the Pacific to Osaka — where the packet then somehow reaches Indonesia. Total journey: approximately 27,000km.
The Traceroute
| Hop | Location | Network | RTT |
|---|
| 1–6 | Tbilisi, GE | JSC Global Erty (AS34666) | 26ms |
| 7–8 | Sofia, BG | Level 3 → NTT (AS2914) | 25ms |
| 9 | Sofia, BG | NTT America (AS2914) | 25ms |
| 10 | Milan, IT | NTT America (AS2914) | 47ms |
| 11 | Paris, FR | NTT America (AS2914) | 261ms |
| 12 | Ashburn, US | NTT America (AS2914) | 146ms |
| 13 | San Jose, US | NTT America (AS2914) | 200ms |
| 14–16 | Osaka, JP | NTT America (AS2914) | 319ms |
| 17–18 | Tokyo/Osaka, JP | Japan Registry (AS23774) | 318ms |
The path is strikingly similar to Georgia→Philippines (321ms) — same carrier, same cities, same ocean crossings. The difference: the Indonesia route somehow ends in Osaka, not Manila. Indonesia is 5,400km southwest of Osaka across the South China Sea.
The Missing Last Mile
The traceroute ends at Osaka (AS23774, Japan Registry) — but the destination is Indonesia. This means the final delivery from Osaka to an Indonesian IP address is handled by routing that's invisible to our probe.
Most likely path from Osaka to Indonesia:
-
NTT → PCCW/HGC in Hong Kong (~20ms from Osaka)
-
Hong Kong → Singapore via multiple cables (~30ms)
-
Singapore → Jakarta via
SEA-ME-WE 5,
AAG, or
Batam-Dumai-Melaka (BDM) cable (~10ms)
Total estimated Osaka → Jakarta: ~60ms — meaning the actual Indonesia endpoint RTT is approximately 380ms, not 318ms. Our probe reports the Osaka hop as the final measurement.
The NTT Pattern: A Recurring Theme
This is the third route in our database where NTT America routes Caucasus-bound Asian traffic via its US infrastructure:
- Georgia → Philippines: NTT via Ashburn/San Jose → Osaka → Manila (321ms)
- Belarus → Japan: NTT via Ashburn/San Jose → Osaka (273ms)
- Georgia → Indonesia: NTT via Ashburn/San Jose → Osaka → Jakarta (318ms)
The pattern reveals NTT's network architecture:
Europe → US → Japan → Asia is NTT's default backbone routing. Traffic from Europe enters NTT in Sofia or Frankfurt, rides the transatlantic backbone to the US, then takes NTT's transpacific cables to Japan, and from Japan distributes across Southeast Asia.
The Shorter Path That Isn't Taken
The Middle East offers a dramatically shorter alternative:
- Tbilisi → Turkey →
AAE-1 cable → India → Singapore → Indonesia
- Theoretical RTT:
100–120ms
This 3× improvement goes unrealized because:
1. Georgia's carriers lack peering with Middle Eastern/Indian carriers
2. NTT's backbone captures the traffic in Sofia before it can reach the Middle East
3. The US West Coast–Japan–Southeast Asia chain is NTT's profit center
Indonesia's Cable Richness
Despite poor routing from Georgia, Indonesia itself has excellent submarine cable infrastructure:
-
SEA-ME-WE 3, 4, 5: Singapore → Java → beyond
-
Asia-America Gateway (AAG): Indonesia → Philippines → Guam → Hawaii → US
-
BDM (Batam-Dumai-Melaka): domestic/regional
-
2Africa: Batam landing (Indian Ocean branch)
Indonesia has 17,000+ islands and has invested heavily in domestic submarine cable infrastructure to connect them — the
Palapa Ring national project links all 514 districts via fiber.
Monitoring Status
-
Current RTT: 318ms |
Carrier: NTT America Sofia → Osaka
-
Path: Tbilisi → Sofia → Milan → Paris → Ashburn → San Jose → Osaka → (Jakarta)
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Pattern: Third consecutive NTT-via-USA routing for Caucasus → Southeast Asia