KEPPEL Ltd. (Keppel) announced that the Bifrost Cable System (Bifrost) has officially achieved ready-for-service (RFS) status and will now gear up to carry commercial traffic in the coming weeks.
Bifrost is the world’s first subsea cable system directly linking Singapore to the west coast of the USA via Indonesia through the Java Sea and Celebes Sea. Spanning over 20,000 km, the cable system is engineered to support AI workloads, cloud-native platforms, and real-time digital services, offering a round-trip latency of just under 165 milliseconds between Singapore and the USA—up to 10 milliseconds faster than many existing systems. By charting a new route across the Pacific, Bifrost also introduces more than 260 Tbps of additional capacity and enhances the resiliency of one of the world’s most active digital corridors.
Mr Manjot Singh Mann, CEO, Connectivity, Keppel, said, “This landmark project will bolster digital connectivity between Southeast Asia and the USA. The Bifrost Cable System will reinforce Singapore’s position as a leading digital hub in Asia and support the region’s rapidly growing digital economy. We look forward to expanding our subsea cable footprint across Asia and beyond, as an integrated ecosystem partner to global cloud players and technology leaders.”
Keppel has been assigned five out of a total of 12 fiber pairs in Bifrost. The five fiber pairs are jointly owned by Keppel and its private fund co-investors through a 40-60 joint venture.
Bifrost lands in Singapore, Guam, and Grover Beach, California, with branching units extending connectivity to Jakarta and Manado in Indonesia, Davao in the Philippines, and Winema, Oregon, in the USA, enabling dynamic traffic routing and robust regional interconnection.
Over in Davao, Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions, Inc. (Converge) will be the landing party.
Dennis Anthony Uy, CEO of Converge, said, “The Philippines is in a prime location, being in the center of the region, so this critical digital infrastructure – the Bifrost Cable System – is envisioned to support the booming connectivity needs of the Asia-Pacific region and provide an important direct link with the US. This will not only boost the company’s international bandwidth capacity, but for the Philippines, it will mean redundancy and diversity in network infrastructure to power the country’s digital journeys.”
Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), a global leader in the development of subsea cable systems, carried out the construction of Bifrost. Alain Biston, CEO of ASN, said, “We are very proud to have been selected by Keppel and its partners to deliver this landmark project across the Pacific. Reaching this new milestone is a testament to the hard work of ASN teams working hand in hand with our client to bring Bifrost to Ready for Service.”
With Bifrost on track to go live in the coming weeks, the system is expected to play a pivotal role in supporting the next wave of digital transformation, enhancing the resilience of regional digital infrastructure, and strengthening global data exchange.
