Hawaiian Telcom Brought Fast Broadband to 10,740 Locations in 2020

Last year Hawaiian Telcom enabled broadband service with speeds up to 940 megabits per second download and 300 Mbps upload to more than 10,740 locations in Hawai‘i, according to a news release.

Nearly 2,400 of those locations are in areas defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as high-cost and/or isolated rural areas. They include:

• MAUI: Huelo, Kahoma Village, Wailuku and Ulupalakua;
• BIG ISLAND: ‘Āinaloa, Hawaiian Acres, Hawi, Kapaau, Kawaihae, Ocean View Estates, Pahoa Village, Papaikou, and Volcano;
• KAUAʻI: Kōloa and Princeville;
• OʻAHU: Waialua, Waipahu and Waipi‘o.

“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 at 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, 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.