The Palapa Ring project was initiated by the Indonesian Government to extend fibre-optic connection to rural areas of the country, in line with the 2020 Broadband Plan vision to extend internet data services, especially in hard to reach areas.
The ambitious Palapa Ring Project consisted of three packages, West, Central and East covering 34 provinces, 440 cities throughout Indonesia. It was officially completed by President Joko Widodo on Monday 14 October, which he described as “The Sky Toll” during an inauguration ceremony at the National Palace.
Palapa Ring East, which is the most complex package of the Palapa Ring Project, connects Waingapu to Papua, crossing the Eurasian and Australian tectonic plates at water depths of over 4,500m, has a total submarine cable length of 4,555km. In addition there is 2,448km of terrestrial cable and 52 towers, in areas inaccessible by roads, connecting a total of 35 cities in NTT, West Papua and Papua Island.
Moratelindo which bid and won both the West and East Packages will continue to operate both fiber optic networks using their respective subsidiary companies PT Palapa Ring Barata and PT Palapa Timur Telematika, to ensure that high quality internet services are delivered to the target areas, in line with Moratelindo’s DNA to provide reliable and affordable broadband services to all Indonesians.
