Telecommunications provider Hawaiian Telcom recently announced it invested more than $160 million to expand fiber internet to 55,000 additional homes and businesses across Hawaii in 2022.
“Our vision is to make a positive impact in Hawaii by shrinking the digital divide and enabling as many homes and businesses with fiber internet service as we can,” Su Shin, president and general manager of Hawaiian Telcom, said in a statement. “Internet connectivity makes a positive difference in our quality of life and we want to see that for every resident and every business.”
The company expanded its fiber network to all of Kealia and Lawai on Kauai; parts of Manoa, Kailua and Waimanalo on Oahu; parts of Wailuku on Maui; and parts of Kalaoa and Lauahoehoe on Hawaii Island. More than half of the 55,000 fiber-enabled locations are on Neighbor Islands. A total of 268,000 locations across Hawaii now have access to Hawaiian Telcom's fiber internet, according to the announcement.
Fiber-optic cables carry 10,000 times more bandwidth than traditional copper cables, and Hawaiian Telcom's fiber internet service, Fioptics, has the fastest upload speed in the state, at 500 megabits per second and one gigabit download speed, according to the internet provider. Over the last 10 years, Hawaiian Telcom has invested more than $1 billion to expand its fiber network, and plans to continue to expand fiber throughout the state to more than 60,000 additional locations in 2023, according to the announcement.
