RES 043 Draft 01 2020-2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

broadband infrastructure on poles or in conduits both intra -state and interstate, Hawaii must cross ocean channels to connect its islands. Microwave systems provide limited capacity where a provider does not have access to submarine fiber connectivity, or in some cases purposely for path resilience, but submarine fiber is currently and for the foreseeable future the only practical technology to enable reliable, high speed broadband access to broadband subscribers on all islands. There are currently three interisland cables connecting all of the major islands. The largest risks with interisland fiber connectivity are in three main areas: o Common cable landing locations for interisland cables (terminating in the same or adjacent beach manholes) o The age of the existing interisland cables (all but 1 were deployed in the 1990s) and are approaching their useful service life o Extremely high costs and permitting requirements in Hawaii to deploy new cable landing • On -Island Connectivity. Almost all of the telecommunications systems utilize fiber optic cabling for their on -island backbone infrastructure to connect services between electronics. • "Last Mile" Connectivity. The term "last mile," also referred to as "first mile" from a rural and indigenous community perspective, describes the infrastructure segment that provides the final connection from a provider's central distribution point (e.g., neighborhood nodes or CO facility) to the subscriber's premises. The distance this "last mile" covers may be less than 100 feet in urban areas, while in rural and remote areas it may actually represent many miles. "Last mile" infrastructure is often the most costly and difficult segment to deploy, especially for the rural areas of the State where distances from a central distribution point are generally much greater and population densities do not provide a sufficient market to support the deployment. Broadband Availability The 2012 Legislature required providers to report the monthly price charged for broadband service if purchased separately, without discounts. DCCA is required to keep reported information confidential, except for mapping information required by -20-