Hawaiian Telcom Increases Broadband Access

Hawaiian Telcom is enabling more than 1,000 rural locations throughout Hawai‘i with fiber broadband this year. With Cyber Monday forecast to be the largest online shopping day in U.S. history, it’s clear that broadband has become a necessity to modern life. Broadband access in rural areas fuels economic development, enabling residents to purchase goods that are not available locally while broadening business, healthcare and educational opportunities.

Partially supported by the federal Connect America Fund (CAF), broadband is now available in parts of these communities: Ainaloa, Kurtistown, Mountain View and the Kona Airport on Hawai‘i Island as well as Princeville on Kaua‘i. CAF is the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) program to expand access to broadband services in rural areas that are unserved or underserved.

Hawai‘i’s Technology Leader is also the only Hawai‘i-based service provider that submitted and won a competitive bid for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) CAF Phase II Auction held this summer. Hawaiian Telcom was awarded $18.2 million in CAF Phase II Auction funds to deploy High-Speed Internet service of 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) download and 500 megabits per second (Mbps) upload to approximately 4,000 unserved rural locations statewide over the next six years.

“Fiber is the future and Hawaiian Telcom remains committed to expanding fiber broadband across our island state,” said John Komeiji, president and general manager. “We are proud to be the only local provider actively expanding broadband to underserved rural areas here in Hawai‘i. As the use of connected devices continues to grow, it’s important for more of our local residents and businesses to have access to higher speeds.”

One gig or 1 Gbps is equal to 1,000 Mbps, enabling multiple connected devices to run bandwidth-intense applications like streaming video and online gaming simultaneously over a shared connection without sacrificing quality.

With CAF II Auction support, Hawaiian Telcom will expand Internet service to unserved areas including Haiku, Hāna and Olowalu on Maui.