XLSmart Begins Candle Cable Construction
XLSmart Begins Candle Cable Construction
Publication Staff, Telecom Review Asia
September 17, 2026
XLSmart says construction is under way on Candle, an approximately 8,000-kilometer submarine cable designed to connect Indonesia with Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan. Its Indonesian landing is planned at Tanjung Bemban on Batam, near Singapore. Telecom Review Asia’s account followed earlier public reporting of a golden-buoy landing milestone at Batam; the later trade article does not establish a separate new construction start. XLSmart is targeting commercial readiness in 2028, subject to the remaining build and regulatory work.
The consortium identified for Candle includes XLSmart, Meta, Globe Telecom, Telekom Malaysia, SoftBank and IPS Inc., with NEC as technology partner. The planned route would give participating operators another international path between Southeast Asian markets and Japan. Those route options matter for owners seeking diversity across the region and for customers buying capacity between its digital hubs. The current announcement does not say that the entire marine cable has been laid, nor does it give a commissioning date or a confirmed live capacity offering.
Batam’s landing is commercially significant because the island sits beside the Singapore and Johor connectivity cluster and has attracted data-center and telecom investment. XLSmart frames Candle as a way to serve enterprise demand for additional international capacity and scalable connections. An earlier Indonesian report described the golden-buoy event at Tanjung Bemban and quoted an XLSmart submarine-cable executive on the permitting process. The reported landing activity is a concrete implementation step beyond the consortium’s earlier design announcement, although it should not be mistaken for ready-for-service status.
Permits and coordination across the route remain part of the work ahead. XLSmart says it is engaging the relevant authorities while those processes proceed; the reports do not identify completion dates for every landing, the main lay or system testing. The next confirmed target is service in 2028. For owners assessing regional route diversity, Candle offers a planned additional path through six jurisdictions, but its realized resilience and sellable capacity will depend on completed construction and commissioning. This account distinguishes the earlier landing milestone from the later trade recap.
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