Thailand-Indonesia-Singapore (TIS)

Overview

Thailand-Indonesia-Singapore (TIS) is a regional submarine cable system connecting three countries in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore. Spanning 968 kilometres, the cable serves the corridor linking the Gulf of Thailand and the Malay Peninsula with the Indonesian archipelago and the Singaporean hub, supporting intra-regional connectivity across this busy stretch of Southeast Asian waters.

Route and Landings

In Thailand, the cable lands at Songkhla, a coastal city on the Gulf of Thailand in the southern part of the country.

In Indonesia, the cable lands at Batam, an island in the Riau Archipelago situated close to the Singapore Strait.

In Singapore, the cable comes ashore at Changi North, on the eastern end of the island.

Ownership and Operators

TIS is jointly owned by three telecommunications operators: National Telecom of Thailand, Singtel of Singapore, and Telkom Indonesia. Singtel is Singapore's principal telecommunications provider, while Telkom Indonesia is the state-owned incumbent operator of Indonesia. Each owner represents the national carrier of one of the three countries served by the cable.

Status and Timeline

The TIS cable entered service in 2003, making it one of the earlier intra-regional systems linking Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore in the post-millennial era of Southeast Asian cable development.

Regional Context

The Southeast Asian corridor served by TIS has seen considerable growth in submarine cable infrastructure over the decades. Longer, intercontinental systems such as EAC-C2C (ready for service 2002), Asia-America Gateway (2009), and Asia Africa Europe-1 (2017) pass through or terminate in this same region, while more recent systems including Bifrost (2025), PEACE Cable (2022), and SeaMeWe-6 (2026) reflect continued investment in Singapore and Indonesia as landing hubs. TIS, at 968 km, is a shorter intra-regional system focused specifically on direct connectivity among its three member countries rather than long-haul intercontinental routing.

Measured performance over the past 60 days, across 63 ping tests, shows an average round-trip latency of 80.0 ms, with a best recorded result of 54.2 ms. These figures reflect the relatively short physical distance between the three landing points.

Strategic Role

TIS provides a direct cable path between Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore, three countries whose telecommunications markets are each served by one of the cable's owner-operators. Its 968 km length and three landing points allow each national carrier to maintain a dedicated cable link with its regional neighbours, complementing the broader mesh of long-distance systems that converge on Singapore and pass through the Strait of Malacca.