BATAM-DUMAI-MELAKA CABLE SYSTEM GOES LIVE – A NEW TRAFFIC ROUTE DIRECT TO INDONESIA

BDM further enhances the capacity of the region’s networks to cater to growing data needs

Batam-Dumai-Melaka (BDM), the latest high bandwidth optical fibre submarine cable system which directly connects Malaysia and Indonesia has now been completed and ready to carry commercial data traffic starting today, 30 December 2011. The construction of BDM cable system was formalized with the signing of a Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA) between Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) with PT XL Axiata Tbk (XL) and PT Mora Telematika of Indonesia in February 2011.

Commenting on the commissioning of BDM, Mohamad Rozaimy Abd Rahman, Executive Vice President of Global, TM said, “We are happy to witness the commercial rollout of yet another submarine cable system from a collaboration between TM and other telcos in the region. Today, BDM is ready to ‘go live’ and it will further enhance the capacity of the existing networks in this region to cater to growing data needs and demand for better, reliable and lower latency international connectivity to its global clients from around the world. This BDM project also demonstrated TM’s commitment to invest in the development of IP communications in the Asian region and to provide a faster and resilient Internet connection, hence a better surfing experience for Internet users.”

“The beneficiaries of the BDM are not only confined to the consortium members, but also the countries and regions that are directly connected to the two countries. As such, excellent interconnections will also be provided to other existing submarine cable systems covering Asia Pacific, Europe, USA and even the Africa seeing that many more international carriers are aiming to collaborate to build new cables with Indonesia and Malaysia. Moreover, the BDM not only offers additional international bandwidth capacity to countries in the region, it will also serve as a gateway to Asia as more international organizations move their operations toward this region to leverage on the lower cost of operations here. Subsequently, the BDM will also cater for Malaysia’s traffic requirement to Indonesia due to the ever increasing Indonesian expatriates in Malaysia,” Rozaimy added.

The BDM cable system consists of 4 fiber pairs, designed to provide 1.28 Tbps adopting Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology to provide upgradable, future-proof transmission facilities. The BDM connects approximately 400 km distance between the two countries with two routes, Melaka-Batam and Melaka-Dumai. The landing station in Malaysia is provided by TM while the Indonesian landing stations is established by XL.

Besides serving these two countries, the cable system will also provide seamless interconnection with other major cable systems connecting Europe, US, Africa and other parts of Asia via Malaysia.

TM owns or leases capacity on more than 10 submarine cable systems, which span more than 60,000 fiber-route miles around the globe, including several submarine cable routes that the company uses to carry traffic between Asia-Pacific region and North American region.

Besides BDM, TM is also a member of the various consortiums for submarine cable systems in the region, which include Asia America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable network, South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe Cable System 3 (SEA-ME-WE3 – SMW3), SEA-ME-WE4 (SMW4), Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) and the latest, TM’s wholly-owned CAHAYA MALAYSIA that will link Malaysia to Hong Kong, and Japan.