Indonesian and Malaysian telcos have signed an MoU to develop a subsea cable stretching from Singapore to Manado, Indonesia.

The agreement was signed on October 22 between Indonesian telco Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin) and Malaysian digital infrastructure companies Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation and ITCO Niaga.

The Indonesia Cable Express System (ICE) II cable will connect Singapore and Manado through the Java Sea and the Makassar Strait.

Manado’s location on the northeastern tip of the Indonesian province of North Sulawesi has made it a popular landing spot for digital infrastructure providers looking to avoid the South China Sea. The coastal city is also home to the Bifrost subsea cable, which landed recently in July.

ICE II will have branching routes to various Indonesian locales, including Batam, Jakarta, Surabaya, Makassar, and Borneo through Balikpapan, Sarawak, and Sabah. Onward connections to North Asia and the US will be provided at a later date.

Telin’s announcement said that this is designed to “meet the rising market demand for high-speed transmission capacity between regional data centers.”

ICE II was first announced in August last year, with Telin signing a MoU with Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH). DCD has reached out to IOH in order to clarify whether it is still associated with the project.

Telin was founded in 2007 as a subsidiary of Telkom Indonesia, one of Indonesia’s main telco providers.

Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation is a Malaysian company that was established in 2017 at the behest of the Premier of Sawarak. It is the body tasked with implementing the Sarawak Digital Economy initiatives, which is intended to spur digitalization in Sarawak, which is one of Malaysia’s states located on the island of Borneo.

ITCO Niaga is a managed services provider to various Malaysian government bodies, including the national utility Tenaga Nasional Berhad.