Keppel (SGX:BN4) signed a 25-year Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) agreement with Telstra International for a fiber pair on the Bifrost Cable System, according to a Friday filing with the Singapore Exchange.
This follows the signing of a binding term sheet between the two companies in January this year, the filing said.
Under the agreement, Telstra will secure an exclusive fiber pair on the Bifrost Cable System, a subsea cable system directly linking Singapore to the west coast of USA via Indonesia through the Java Sea and Celebes Sea.
The Bifrost system supports AI workloads and cloud-native platforms and offers a round-trip latency of nearly 165 milliseconds.
Keppel's investment in the Bifrost fiber pairs was carried out through a 40-60 joint venture with private fund co-investors. The JV vehicle currently owns and manages five distinct fiber pairs within the transpacific network.
The company is now in talks with potential customers on the remaining high-bandwidth pairs, with contracts expected to be signed during the first half of the year.