The subsea cable system between the US and Singapore, of which Converge ICT Solutions Inc. is a party to, will be switched on in the coming weeks to hasten data transfer in Asia-Pacific.
Singapore-based conglomerate Keppel Ltd. yesterday announced that the Bifrost Cable System is now ready for service, and it is gearing up to begin data transport in the coming weeks.
Bifrost is the world’s first subsea cable linking Singapore and the US West Coast via Indonesia through the Java Sea and Celebes Sea.
The project spans more than 20,000 kilometers, and it is designed to handle artificial intelligence and digital services. Bifrost is able to move data between Singapore and the US in just under 165 milliseconds (ms), quicker by up to 10 ms compared to existing systems.
Bifrost also brings in an additional 260 Tbps of capacity for Asia and the Pacific. This makes the region one of the most active digital corridors based on resiliency.
The project lands in Singapore, Guam and Grover Beach, California, with branches extending to Jakarta and Manado in Indonesia, Davao and Winema Beach, Oregon.
In the Philippines, Converge is tasked to plug Bifrost to the archipelago via the landing station in Davao, and the project is seen to aid the country’s digital transition.
Converge CEO and co-founder Dennis Anthony Uy said Bifrost would provide the Philippines a direct access to the US, where it sources most of its data demand.
‘This will not only boost the company’s international bandwidth capacity. For the Philippines, it would mean redundancy and diversity in its network infrastructure to power the country’s digital journey,’ Uy said.
Based on Keppel’s timeline, Bifrost is scheduled to go live in the coming weeks. Once Bifrost is activated, it will scale up the speed by which data is transferred between Singapore and the US to the benefit of consumers.
Subsea cables like Bifrost facilitate the movement of data among and between locations, making them important assets in the digital era.
Converge is also a party to another subsea cable, the Southeast Asia-Hainan-Hong Kong Express Cable System, linking Hainan, China; Hong Kong; Malaysia; the Philippines and Singapore.