BAKTI Accelerates Palapa Ring Central Submarine Cable Repairs in North Sulawesi
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Telecommunication and Information Accessibility Agency of the Ministry of Communication and Digital (BAKTI Kemkomdigi) is working to accelerate the repair of damage to the undersea fibre-optic cable on the Melonguane–Morotai segment of the Palapa Ring Central network, which has suffered a partial fibre break.
This restoration is a preventive measure, not the result of a total network outage. By carrying out repairs early, the government aims to prevent potentially wider disruption to telecommunication services in several island areas in the northern part of North Sulawesi province.
“We are ensuring all teams are working at full capacity in the field to speed up the recovery of this vital infrastructure in order to achieve quality connectivity across every corner of Indonesia,” said Acting Director of Infrastructure at BAKTI Kemkomdigi, Darien Aldiano, in a statement confirmed in Jakarta on Friday.
At the same time, Kemkomdigi is taking comprehensive mitigation steps, from optimising the Internet Access infrastructure programme already serving various locations, to coordinating with telecommunication operators, to ensure communities in affected areas retain telecommunications access during the repair process.
Based on technical monitoring, the anomaly on this undersea cable route occurred following tectonic activity in the form of a magnitude 5.7 earthquake on 26 May 2026 and several strong earthquakes felt along the Melonguane–Morotai segment.
The damage was detected at a sea depth of around 3,400 metres, approximately 95 km from the Morotai Terminal Station (TS).
The deep-sea conditions add complexity to the repair process, requiring a specialised vessel with deep-sea cable laying and jointing capabilities.
The areas directly affected by this problem comprise three regencies in North Sulawesi Province: the Sangihe Islands Regency (Tahuna), the Talaud Islands Regency (Melonguane), and the Siau Tagulandang Biaro/Sitaro Islands Regency (Ondong Siau).
In a coordination meeting involving the Directorate General of Digital Infrastructure of Kemkomdigi, BAKTI Komdigi, the Frequency Spectrum Monitoring Centre, and various other stakeholders, all technical, operational, administrative, service mitigation and public communication strategy aspects were comprehensively discussed, and an updated Plan of Work was established.
Under the Plan of Work, the repair vessel is scheduled to depart from Bitung for Morotai on 28 July 2026, after completing the preparation of administrative documents and shipping permits.
The critical service interruption period during the technical work is estimated to last approximately 12 days. If the entire process runs smoothly, services are targeted to be fully restored by 11 August 2026.
Intensive coordination is under way with the local regional government, security forces and mobile operators to ensure the repair process runs smoothly.
To maintain community connectivity during the restoration period, BAKTI has optimised 286 existing Internet access service points that are already spread across and serving the affected areas.
These points consist of 106 existing locations in the Sangihe Islands Regency, 48 existing locations in the Sitaro Islands Regency and 132 existing locations in the Talaud Islands Regency, optimised using the SATRIA 1 satellite.
The optimisation takes the form of increased bandwidth capacity at these service points, with varying increases to 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps or 150 Mbps according to the needs of each location.
Technical teams continue to monitor user experience regularly to ensure service quality, such as browsing and digital communications, remains optimal even during the repair period.
Internet Access is a BAKTI programme that already serves communities and has been installed in public locations such as government offices, schools, community health centres/hospitals, and defence/security posts.
With the Palapa Ring repair under way, BAKTI is optimising capacity at existing Internet Access points so that communities can use them for telecommunications.