Keppel’s Bifrost subsea cable achieves 'ready for service' status

It is the first to connect Singapore directly to the U.S. west coast via Indonesia.

Keppel Ltd. has announced that the Bifrost Cable System has achieved ready for service (RFS) status and will begin carrying commercial traffic in the coming weeks.

The 20,000-km subsea cable is the first to connect Singapore directly to the U.S. west coast via Indonesia.

It offers a round-trip latency of under 165 milliseconds between Singapore and the U.S., up to 10 milliseconds faster than existing systems, and adds over 260 Tbps of capacity to one of the world’s busiest digital corridors.

Keppel has been allocated five out of the system’s 12 fibre pairs through a 40-60 joint venture with private fund co-investors. The cable lands in Singapore, Guam, and Grover Beach, California, with branching connections to Jakarta and Manado in Indonesia, Davao in the Philippines, and Winema, Oregon.

Converge ICT will manage the landing in Davao, Philippines.

Construction of the Bifrost system was carried out by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN).