Tanjung Pakis: Strategic Hub for Global Undersea Cables

How Geography Made This Place a Hub

Tanjung Pakis, located at the western tip of Java Island in Indonesia, has become a key hub for submarine cables thanks to its strategic location. This site lies at the crossroads of routes connecting Southeast Asia with Australia, the Pacific region and the rest of the world. Natural conditions, including relatively shallow waters and accessible landing points, make Tanjung Pakis attractive for cable laying. Additionally, its proximity to major economic centers like Jakarta and Singapore enhances the significance of this hub.

Historically, cable routes here have been chosen to minimize installation and maintenance costs. Indonesia, with its thousands of islands, requires a complex network of internal and external connections. Tanjung Pakis has proven to be an ideal point where trunk lines intersect, serving both the archipelago and beyond.

What Has Accumulated: 17 Cables and Their Scale

Currently, 17 submarine cables converge in the Tanjung Pakis area, with a total length of tens of thousands of kilometers. These include both trunk routes and regional connections. Here are some of them:

• Bifrost (19888.0 km): connects Southeast Asia with the US via Guam and the Pacific Ocean.
• Asia Connect Cable-1 (ACC-1) (19000.0 km): a trunk line linking Asia and the Pacific region.
• Apricot (11972.0 km): a new cable connecting Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, Taiwan and Japan.
• Barat Timur Indonesia-2 (BTI-2) (11600.0 km) and BTI-1 (4500.0 km): domestic Indonesian routes.
• Indonesia Global Gateway (IGG) System (5300.0 km): connects Indonesia with Singapore and Australia.
• INDIGO-West (4600.0 km): part of INDIGO, linking Singapore with Australia.
• JAKABARE (1330.0 km), Matrix Cable System (1055.0 km), B3JS (1031.0 km): regional cables connecting Indonesian islands and Singapore.

These cables facilitate connectivity between Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, the US, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan and other countries. Their functionality ranges from high-speed trunk lines to local connections between islands.

Regional Precedents

Like any chokepoint, Tanjung Pakis is vulnerable to incidents involving cable damage. The region has already witnessed cases where fishing nets, ship anchors or natural phenomena like earthquakes caused breaks. In 2021, damage to the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) cable in a neighboring area led to significant internet disruptions in several Southeast Asian countries. Although this did not occur directly in Tanjung Pakis, the incident underscores the importance of protecting such hubs.

Additionally, over the past decade, there have been repeated cases of cables in this region being damaged due to human activities, including illegal fishing and improper ship operations. Such incidents result in significant repair costs and temporary communication outages.

What Has Changed Now

With increasing internet traffic and digitalization, Tanjung Pakis's role as a cable hub is only growing. The installation of new cables, such as Apricot and Bifrost, reflects the rising dependence on this hub. These lines provide not only high capacity but also backup routes in case of damage.

Additionally, attention to infrastructure in the region has intensified. Companies managing the cables are investing in protection against external threats, such as ship anchors or underwater earthquakes. Efforts are underway to install underwater buoys and other monitoring systems, as well as to collaborate with local fishermen and ports to prevent incidents.

What GeoCables Monitors

GeoCables closely monitors the condition of cables in the Tanjung Pakis area. All 17 cables, including major trunk lines like Bifrost and ACC-1, are under our surveillance. We track:

• Latency times on cables to identify potential damage or overloads.
• Vessel movements near cable routes, especially potentially hazardous ones like fishing trawlers.
• Repair vessel activity, which may indicate damage.

Additionally, we document new cable installation projects and their impact on existing infrastructure. This helps assess the resilience of the entire system and prevent potential disruptions in the future.