Honolulu (March 16, 2021) – Last year Hawaiian Telcom enabled broadband service with speeds up to 940 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 300 Mbps upload to more than 10,740 locations in Hawai‘i.
Nearly 2,400 of these locations are in areas defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as high-cost and/or isolated rural areas that include:
- ‘Āinaloa, Hawaiian Acres, Hawi, Kapaau, Kawaihae, Ocean View Estates, Pahoa Village, Papaikou, and Volcano on the Big Island;
- Huelo, Kahoma Village, Wailuku and Ulupalakua on Maui;
- Kōloa and Princeville on Kaua‘i, and
- Waialua, Waipahu and Waipi‘o on O‘ahu.
“Hawaiian Telcom is committed to helping to bridge the digital divide here in Hawai‘i by expanding access to our world-class broadband service,” said Dan Masutomi, Director – Network Planning. “Over the years, our team has become adept at overcoming the challenges associated with rural broadband deployment such as clearing heavily forested areas and traversing mountainous lava rock terrain.”
Speeds up to 940 Mbps are among the highest in the nation, enabling multiple connected devices to run bandwidth-intense applications like streaming video, security cameras and online gaming simultaneously. Hawaiian Telcom also offers Hawai‘i’s fastest upload speed 300 Mbps. Faster upload speeds have become increasingly important as people share more content and information out over the Internet. According to research group DecisionData.org, the average download speed in the U.S. was 124 Mbps in 2020, while Speedtest.net found that the average upload speed was only 12 Mbps.
Hawaiian Telcom’s rural broadband deployment is partially supported by the Connect America Fund (CAF), an FCC program created to accelerate the expansion of access to broadband service in unserved or underserved areas. Over the past five years, Hawaiian Telcom deployed broadband to more than 10,000 homes and businesses in rural areas primarily on the neighbor islands.
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About Hawaiian Telcom
Hawaiian Telcom, established and headquartered in Honolulu since 1883, offers a full range of services to business and residential customers including Internet, video, voice, wireless, data network solutions and security, colocation, and managed and cloud services - all supported by the reach and reliability of its next generation fiber network and 24/7 state-of-the-art network operations center. With employees statewide sharing a commitment to innovation and a passion for delivering superior service, Hawaiian Telcom is proud to be Hawaiʻi’s Technology Leader. For more information, visit hawaiiantel.com
Contact
Ann Nishida Fry
(808) 285-9289
Ann.nishida@hawaiiantel.com