Leading By Example The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly. - Jim Rohn

1. GOVERNOR DAVID Y. IGE
Weathering Stormy Seas
HAWAII'S INTERNET RELIES ON INCREASINGLY TENUOUS UNDERSEA CABLES
Two of the three cables connecting the islands are old, and now one of them is the subject of a
bankruptcy court hearing. By Allan Parachini, Honolulu Civil Beat. June 1, 2020
https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/06/hawaiis-internet-relies-on-increasingly-tenuous-undersea-connections/
To Burt Lum and many members of the Hawaii Broadband Hui, which Lum organized in March at
the start of the COVID-19 crisis, a fundamental problem in Hawaii is that the three critical
submarine cables are all owned by private companies reluctant to discuss their businesses publicly.
Spectrum Cable, for example, declined to say how much cable capacity it uses. A spokesman said
the company sees specifics about its network as confidential business information. Hawaiian Tel
said it, too, could not describe its technical operations, cable capacity and system redundancy in any
detail.
LUM, WHO RUNS THE HAWAII BROADBAND INITIATIVE IN THE STATE
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM, HAS
ADVOCATED FOR CREATION OF A PUBLICLY OWNED INTERISLAND FIBER
SYSTEM. [Emphasis Supplied]
Although it likely won't happen anytime soon, Lum said, he's starting to search for private sector
partners. He's even identified sites on Oahu and Hawaii island that could serve as publicly owned
and controlled cable landing points. Burt Lum envisions a publicly operated interisland fiber-optic
cable network. Lum said that when fiber optic cable first started to be developed around the world,
systems needed way stations in the middle of the Pacific and Hawaii was a natural venue. More
recently, he said, big data companies like Google and Facebook have started using more
sophisticated technology and no longer need Hawaii to keep their systems running.
“THE WHOLE TRANS-PACIFIC CABLE BUSINESS HAS CHANGED BECAUSE OF
THESE LARGE PLAYERS,” LUM SAID. THEIR PERSPECTIVE IS THERE IS NO
MARKET IN HAWAII. WE'RE TOO SMALL. HAWAII IS GOING TO BE A WAYSIDE
UNLESS WE FIGURE OUT HOW TO ATTRACT SOME OF THESE TRANS-PACIFIC
CABLE PROJECTS. [Emphasis Supplied]
“Before the pandemic, I was making the argument that if Hawaii is going to be a player in the global
market — e-anything, artificial intelligence or big data — we need to have a robust connection to
the rest of the world.” But within the state, he said, the neighbor islands will still be out of luck
unless they have access to the most sophisticated connections, too. “It doesn’t matter if you have it
in downtown Honolulu, if you can't get off that island, you’re pretty isolated,” he said. “Then you
have the problem that may people aren't connected at all.”
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TRANSPACIFIC CABLE SYSTEMS
State of Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs - Hawaii Broadband Initiative
Hawaii Broadband Strategic Plan - December 2012
http://cca.hawaii.gov/broadband/hawaii-broadband-strategic-plan/

2. Broadband connection to and from Hawaii is provided through transpacific submarine cables that
link the State to the mainland U.S., Asia, and the South Pacific. 6 transpacific fiber cable systems
provide most of the State’s connectivity through:
• 3 transpacific fiber cables from the mainland U.S.
Japan-US (JUS) Hawaii to California
Asia America Gateway (AAG) Hawaii to California
Southern Cross (SX) Hawaii to California/Oregon
• 2 transpacific fiber cables from Asia
Japan-US (JUS) Hawaii to Japan
Asia America Gateway (AAG) Hawaii to Asia
• 4 transpacific fiber cables from the South Pacific
Southern Cross (SX) Hawaii to Australia
Endeavour Hawaii to Sydney
American Samoa Hawaii (ASH) Hawaii to Samoa
Honotua Hawaii to Tahiti
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An honest enemy is better than a false friend.
When in doubt, pay more attention to what people do and less to what they say.
Actions not only speak louder than words, they are more difficult to fake.
- Bonnie Thunder
__________
Governor David Ige
Integrity of Leadership
BROADBAND 2019 LEGISLATION - HAWAII
By Heather Morton. National Conference of State Legislatures. January 13, 2020
https://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/broadband-2019-legislation.aspx
HB 821 - Passed House March 5, 2019 Requires the Hawaii technology development corporation
to seek to establish a public-private partnership to plan, build, and manage key strategic
broadband infrastructure and attract cloud based companies; makes an appropriation for the
Hawaii broadband initiative and to establish an open access, carrier neutral cable landing station.
HB 1062 To conference committee April 18, 2019 Establishes a broadband infrastructure grant
program to be administered by the Department of Business, Economic Development, and
Tourism.
HB 1156 Establishes the Broadband Service Infrastructure Grant Program; awards grants to
applicants to extend deployment of facilities used to provide broadband service to unserved and
underserved areas of the state; makes an appropriation.

3. HCR 197/HR 178 Requests a study that summarizes the published reports and studies on the
effects of 5G wireless technology on biological life.
SB 218 Requires the State Technology Development Corporation to establish a public private
partnership to plan, build, and manage key strategic broadband infrastructure and attract cloud
based companies to the state; makes an appropriation.
SB 553 Passed Senate March 5, 2019 Facilitates the deployment of broadband service
infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas by identifying and addressing remaining
obstacles to full deployment of broadband infrastructure to all areas; establishes the broadband
service infrastructure grant program to award grants to applicants to extend deployment of
facilities used to provide broadband service to unserved and underserved areas of the State.
SB 990 To conference committee April 15, 2019 Requires the Department of Business, Economic
Development, and Tourism to engage a consulting firm to conduct a study to evaluate policies and
organizational changes needed within the Department that will enable the state to successfully
execute a technology based economic development strategy; appropriates funds.
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HAWAIKI CABLE
Hawaiki Cable spans 15,000 km, linking Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa, Pacific Island,
Hawaii and Oregon, on the U.S. West Coast, with a design capacity of 43.8 Tbps of capacity.
The Hawaiki Cable represents a solution to improve:
 Trans-Pacific connectivity between Australia, New Zealand and the US
 Trans-Tasman connectivity between Australia and New Zealand
 Hawaii connectivity to Continental US
 Pacific Islands connectivity to New Zealand, Australia and the US
https://www.submarinenetworks.com/systems/australia-usa/hawaiki-cable
Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP says is now offers its customers a direct route to Los Angeles. The
new link, based on the most easterly segment of the SEA-US undersea cable, is the undersea cable
system's fourth U.S. touchpoint, including previous links to Hillsboro, OR; Seattle, WA; and
Hawaii. Hawaiki also connects Sydney, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand, to the west.

4. The new route offers a particularly low latency path between Sydney and Los Angeles, the
company asserts. “As demand for capacity continues to rise sharply, customers are constantly
looking for versatile connectivity solutions. This expansion marks an important milestone for
Hawaiki as it both strengthens our position in the U.S. market and greatly enhances our network
flexibility,” said Hawaiki CEO, Remi Galasso. “It also provides our customers with powerful new
options in terms of capacity products, delivery points, and route diversity.”
Ready for service in July 2018, the 15,000-km Hawaiki carrier-neutral submarine cable offers a
design capacity of 67 Tbps (see “Hawaiki Submarine Cable system ready for service”). The
submarine network deployment cost $300 million and took 27 months to complete. SubCom
(formerly TE Subcom and now owned by Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.), designed and
deployment the fiber-optic cable network (see "Hawaiki transpacific submarine cable project
advances to marine survey stage"). Its customers include Vodafone and Amazon Web Services.
“HAWAIKI SUBMARINE CABLE ADDS LINK TO LOS ANGELES VIA SEA-US
SUBMARINE NETWORK The new link, based on the most easterly segment of the SEA-US
undersea cable, is the undersea cable system's fourth U.S. touchpoint, including previous links to
Hillsboro, OR; Seattle, WA; and Hawaii” By Stephen Hardy, Lightwave. June 24, 2019
https://www.lightwaveonline.com/network-design/high-speed-networks/article/14035259/hawaiki-submarine-
cable-adds-link-to-los-angeles-via-seaus-submarine-network
HAWAIKI TRANSPACIFIC SUBMARINE CABLE SYSTEM
Vodafone - Global reach and scale
https://www.vodafone.com/business/carrier-services/connectivity/submarine-terrestrial-cable/Hawaiki
• Over 1 million km of network, including terrestrial and undersea cables
• 800 international PoPs (Point of Presence) across 150 countries
• Partnerships with all the top tier carriers
• Capacity on 73 cable systems, including 25 major international submarine cables
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UNDERSEA FIBER NETWORK TO DELIVER 100-GIGABIT-PER-SECOND
BROADBAND SPEEDS TO HAWAII
The 9,000-mile submarine fiber cable system will connect Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii
and California to help meet the exponential growth in demand for internet service.
By Kathryn Mykleseth, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. August 8, 2017
https://www.govtech.com/network/Undersea-Fiber-Network-to-Deliver-100-Gigabit-Per-Second-Broadband-
Speeds-to-Hawaii.html
This month web, data and voice traffic will begin flowing through a new $250 million undersea
fiber cable connecting Hawaii, the U.S. mainland and Asia. The new cable has the capacity to
stream 4 million high-definition movies simultaneously, according to Hawaiian Telcom, co-owner
and operator of the system with six other companies.
“Trans-Pacific cables have been providing telecommunication services to Hawaii for over 50
years,” said Daniel Masutomi, director of subsea engineering and network optimization at
Hawaiian Telcom. “However, the majority of these cables have been retired and the few active
remaining cables are close to retirement or have maxed out their capacity.”

5. The 9,000-mile submarine fiber cable system will connect Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam,
Hawaii and California to help meet the exponential growth in demand for internet service. The
seven companies formed the Southeast Asia-United States consortium (SEA-US) to establish the
cable. The cable connects to Oahu at Makaha. The Makaha Cable Landing Station was built in
February. The cable was pulled to the landing station in April after a three-year process of
designing and engineering the system, building landing stations and laying the undersea cable.
Two trans-oceanic cable-laying ships met in Hawaii, one from Guam and one from California,
after traveling across the Pacific positioning the cable on the ocean floor. Hawaiian Telcom said
the companies surveyed in advance where the cable would be placed — the routes the ships took
were designed so the cable bypasses congested, earthquake-prone areas. The cable is expected to
have a minimum of 25 years of commercial life, Hawaiian Telcom said. It can withstand strong
ocean currents, ocean storms and harsh corrosive salt environments, Masutomi said.
The SEA-US cable will deliver a 20-terabit-per-second capacity, using 100-gigabit-per-second
technology. With 20 Tbps, an internet user can download roughly 4,000 DVDs in one second, or
the entire printed library of the U.S. Library of Congress in half a second, according to Hawaiian
Telcom.
“We're proud to be part of this significant achievement for Hawaii as SEA-US is the most
technologically advanced trans-Pacific cable system that will meet the growing broadband
demands between the U.S. and Asia,” said Scott Barber, Hawaiian Telcom president and CEO.
“This landmark cable system ensures Hawaiian Telcom has the capacity to cost-effectively
support bandwidth requirements of cloud, streaming video, internet of things, and new
applications that spur innovation and economic growth for Hawaii’s residents and businesses.”
The system will be owned and operated by Hawaiian Telcom; Manila-based Globe Telecom;
Tamuning, Guam-based GTA; Los Angeles-based GTI; San Francisco- based RTI; Jakarta,
Indonesia-based Telin; and Los Angeles-based Telkom USA. Hawaiian Telcom said the company
decided to invest in the new system to make sure Hawaii's access to the internet was not
interrupted as existing submarine cables near the end of their lives. The company said a 2013
study from the University of Hawaii and Johns Hopkins University showed some of the islands'
existing cables were expected to reach end-of-life in the mid-2020s. The Honolulu-based
telecommunications company invested $25 million in the project.
GOV. DAVID IGE said, in a prepared statement, that the cable provides critical infrastructure for
the state “that effectively ensures our economic vitality today and into the future.”
Maka`apu Lighthouse
Courtesy Hawaii Lighthouse Friends