Telecommunications provider Hawaiian Telcom invested more than $223 million in 2023 to expand its fiber internet network to more residents and businesses across the state, the company recently announced.
“Culminating 140 years of building connections here in Hawaii, we reached the halfway mark in our statewide fiber expansion last year,” said Hawaiian Telcom President Su Shin in a statement. “Our team again exceeded expectations, enabling more than 64,000 additional homes and businesses with access to our fiber network, the most we’ve enabled in a single year.”
According to a Jan. 23 announcement from Hawaiian Telcom, the company has invested more than $1 billion over the last decade to expand and support the network, and with last year’s expansion, a total of 337,000 locations in Hawaii now have access to its fiber internet service, Fioptics. Filifotu Vaai, vice president of business sales at Hawaiian Telcom, told Pacific Business News via email that more than 24,000 businesses are included in that total.
Last year’s expansion included the island of Lanai and more than 95% of Molokai, as well as parts of Pahoa and Kailua-Kona on Hawaii Island; Wailuku, Kihei and Makawao on Maui; and Lihue and Kilauea on Kauai.
The announcement noted that Hawaiian Telcom plans to continue the expansion and enable 60,000 additional locations with fiber in 2024. Vaai said that this year, the expansion will be “focused on unserved and underserved areas primarily on the neighbor islands.” Some of the areas that the company plans to expand to this year include northern Kauai; parts of Kula, Wailuku and Kihei on Maui; and parts of Kona/Keauhou, Kapaau/Hawi and Hilo on Hawaii Island. On Oahu, areas within the rail corridors in Kalihi, Iwilei and Downtown Honolulu, and parts of Waipahu, are also on the list.
“It’s important to all of us that every resident and every business gets access to fiber internet service – it’s what we’re working towards every day,” Vaai said.
Fioptics has an upload speed of 500 megabits per second and a one-gigabit download speed, according to the company. Hawaiian Telcom also said in the announcement that fiber carries 10,000 times more bandwidth than traditional copper cables, and that it is “more energy-efficient, more durable, and less susceptible to elements such as water and electromagnetic interference.”
“Hawaiian Telcom’s vision is to make a positive impact in Hawaii by continuing to invest in our fiber infrastructure to shrink the digital divide and enable as many homes and businesses with fiber internet service as we can,” Vaai said. “Internet connectivity is an enabler for positive outcomes in our economy, education, health and social outcomes. It makes a positive difference in our quality of life, and we want to see that for every resident and every business.
“As our expansion improves access to fiber internet service throughout the state, we are also working on new solutions that help local businesses connect more securely, seamlessly and affordably,” Vaai continued. “The vast majority of businesses in Hawaii are small businesses, so our services support their specific needs such as a new bundle that includes enterprise-grade security, Wi-Fi access and device management at a small business price.”
For more information, visit hawaiiantel.com/fioptics.
