Hawaiian Telcom has extended its fiber-optic infrastructure to 22,000 homes and businesses between January and June.
As previously reported by PBN, this is part of the company’s larger goal to extend its service to 50,000 homes by the end of 2022.
“Hawaiian Telcom is helping to create more digital equity in Hawaii by investing even more than we had been in expanding our fiber network throughout the state,” Hawaiian Telcom’s Senior Corporate Communications Manager Ann Nishida Fry told PBN in an interview.
More than half of the homes and businesses that Hawaiian Telcom enables this year with the fiber internet service, called Fioptics, will be on neighbor islands, including Molokai and Lanai, according to Hawaiian Telcom.
“We’re focusing on unserved and underserved areas this year,” Nishida Fry said.
Fioptics is the only 100% fiber internet service in the state and provides Hawaii’s fastest upload speed, which is when a user is pushing data out, according to Nishida Fry.
“It makes a big difference when you’re doing things like video conference calls,” Nishida Fry said. "Increasingly as people do more with their broadband connection, upload speeds are becoming more important.
It also offers one of the fastest available download speeds. Last year, Hawaiian Telcom invested more than 100 million dollars to expand its fiber network, and extended to about 30,000 locations, Nishida Fry said.
"Our vision is to make an immediate impact on the digital divide and help everyone in Hawaii get access to fiber internet service," Nishida Fry said. "Internet connectivity is critical. It gives you access to jobs and educational opportunities, healthcare resources, ecommerce. We know that Fioptics can open new doors for everyone in Hawaii."
For more information on Fioptics, visit Hawaiian Telcom’s website.
