Tech Titans and Regional Carriers Back 5,000-Mile Subsea Cable Linking Southeast Asia to Japan

JAKARTA, Investortrust.id — A consortium of multinational technology leaders and regional telecom carriers is laying thousands of miles of high-capacity optical fiber along the seabed of the Asia-Pacific to feed the region's exploding appetite for cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Indonesian telecommunications operator PT XLSMART Telecom Sejahtera Tbk (EXCL) announced on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, that it has commenced construction on the Candle Cable System, a 4,971-mile (8,000-kilometer) undersea fiber network designed to interconnect Indonesia with Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan. The trans-regional project is slated to reach commercial readiness in 2028.

Generative artificial intelligence and sovereign data demands are rapidly outgrowing legacy subsea transmission channels across Southeast Asia. As hyperscalers pour capital into high-density server farms across the region, securing redundant, low-latency international routes becomes critical to avoiding bandwidth chokepoints. By routing the deep-sea line directly through Batam island, operators are establishing a strategic bypass to Singapore’s congested connectivity nodes while anchoring corporate enterprise workloads in Indonesian territory.

A Long-Term Bet on Computational Traffic

Addressing the strategic rationale behind the rollout, XLSmart Director & Chief Enterprise Business Officer Andrijanto Muljono explained that the deployment is calibrated to absorb structural expansions in digital enterprise traffic over the coming decades.

"Candle represents a strategic investment to prepare for Indonesia's long-term connectivity needs," Muljono said in an official corporate statement released on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026.

Muljono noted that the accelerating digital economy demands exponentially larger transmission pipes and unhindered access to international backbones. The infrastructure is engineered to lower cross-border friction for domestic enterprises tapping into Asian computing corridors.

The project is backed by a heavyweight international consortium comprising XLSmart, American social media and cloud titan Meta Platforms Inc., Philippine provider Globe Telecom, Japanese network operator IPS Inc., Telekom Malaysia, and SoftBank Japan. Industrial engineering powerhouse NEC Corporation has been selected as the lead system technology supplier to manufacture and deploy the subsea infrastructure.

Elevating Batam as a Regional Data Fortress

A central pillar of the cable layout is its strategic landing facility at Tanjung Bemban, located on Batam island just across the Malacca Strait from Singapore.

Consortium planners selected the site due to Batam’s rapid emergence as a preferred regional nexus for cloud hyperscalers and telecommunications operators seeking land, power, and regulatory incentives for commercial data center development.

Once operational, the Candle network will pipe international data traffic directly between Batam-based server clusters and primary hubs along the subsea route. The high-throughput fiber is configured specifically to service bandwidth-hungry enterprise requirements, such as distributed cloud workloads, complex artificial intelligence modeling, and real-time digital services.

"For enterprise clients, Candle provides a broader, high-capacity, reliable, and scalable international connectivity alternative," Muljono emphasized.

Navigating Cross-Border Permitting

The project marks a major capital undertaking for XLSmart, the enlarged telecommunications entity formed through the corporate merger of PT XL Axiata Tbk and PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk.

Corporate management confirmed that the operating entity is maintaining close coordination with national regulators and regional stakeholders as permitting frameworks advance through formal maritime and inter-governmental channels.

Local officials and market observers anticipate that landing the system in Tanjung Bemban will bolster Batam’s positioning as a resilient alternative to traditional regional transit centers.

Muljono noted that the initiative’s ultimate value extends beyond raw marine fiber miles, serving instead as a structural on-ramp connecting the country's domestic business landscape directly to Asia’s broader digital architecture.