DBEDT – Hawaii Broadband & Digital Equity Office

In 2008, the Hawaii Broadband Task Force identified the need for a public-private partnership to manage a shared submarine fiber optic cable landing station to benefit the whole State by allowing it to be globally competitive in knowledge intensive and creative industries. The current marketplace has failed to generate sufficient new transpacific cables through and to Hawaii.

Over the years there have been several attempts to leverage state appropriated funding to accomplish this task. In 2018, the Hawaii Broadband Initiative in DBEDT set the objective to conduct planning, designing, and construction of a transpacific fiber optic cable landing station using a public-private partnership model. The requested amount is $10,000,000. The goal is to build cable landing infrastructure on Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Island.

DBEDT continues to work toward securing funding through the 2020 legislature. In the meantime, HCDA procured a contract with the firm, Wilson Okamoto Corporation, to provide pre-engineering and planning services for the potential of a transpacific cable landing station in Kakaʻako. The contract includes a scope to estimate the alignment of the future broadband conduit and terminal as a basis for the Environmental Assessment (EA).

In January 2020, Dentons/J.P. Morgan submitted a final report entitled “Development Options for a Hawaii Cable Landing Station.”  As requested by DBEDT, the report outlines financing and development alternatives to build a submarine cable system in Hawaii.