Singapore License Moves Keppel's Oman Cable Toward A 2026 Funding Decision

A Singapore telecom license has moved Keppel’s proposed Kruger Cable System closer to a funding decision, giving the company landing and operating rights for a subsea route planned to connect Singapore with Oman through South Asia.

Light Reading reported that Keppel Kruger Holdings secured a facilities-based operator license from Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority.

The company said Singapore landing rights are among the first regulatory conditions needed before a new subsea system can move from planning into investment and construction.

The license authorizes its subsidiary to own, operate and maintain telecom infrastructure in Singapore and provide services tied to the Kruger project.

Singapore License Clears A Landing Path

The proposed system is designed to connect Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India and Oman, with the Oman landing identified at Salalah and additional branches across South Asia.

For Gulf and Asian connectivity buyers, that route would add another path between the Middle East and the Singapore hub at a time when cloud, AI and content traffic is putting more pressure on international capacity.

Keppel’s statement puts Kruger under evaluation with prospective investors and sets an investment decision target of the end of 2026.

Third-party capital would be mobilized through Keppel’s private infrastructure fund under its asset manager-operator model.

Tuas Stub Reduces The Build From A Blank Start

The Singapore landing is not only a paper approval.

Kruger is expected to land on the western side of Singapore at Tuas using the same beach manhole as the Bifrost Cable System, a route that reached full commercialization earlier this year.

Before the main system, a 2024 shore-to-sea preparatory segment gave Kruger a 1.2 kilometer connection point.

A cable-laying vessel can later attach the main route to that landing point during installation.

Existing Bifrost infrastructure gives the project a prepared physical path rather than forcing the full shore-side work to begin after the investment decision.

Manjot Singh Mann, chief executive of Keppel’s Connectivity Division, framed the license as a move from intent to execution and linked the project to rising demand for high-capacity international connectivity.

The company also cited industry forecasts that major cloud, AI and content platforms may need more than five times today's cross-border bandwidth by 2035.

Oman Route Puts Gulf Capacity In The Project Scope

Kruger’s inclusion of Oman gives the project a Gulf endpoint rather than making it only an intra-Asia route.

Salalah is already a strategic landing geography for systems that need paths between Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and a Singapore-to-Oman cable would sit inside that wider digital infrastructure map.

The project remains short of a construction commitment until Keppel completes investor evaluation and reaches its final investment decision.

For now, the license gives Kruger a regulatory and physical starting point in Singapore while the capital plan determines whether the proposed South Asia-Middle East corridor advances into a live build.