Hawaiian Telcom to award $140,000 to nonprofits for digital equity grants

This year Hawaiian Telcom celebrates its 140^th year of building connections for Hawai‘i residents and businesses.

In August of 1883, visionary monarch King David Kalākaua granted Hawaiian Telcom a charter to provide telephone service and modernize the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. Throughout its 140 years of serving Hawai‘i, Hawaiian Telcom has continued King Kalākaua’s legacy of innovation by investing in new technologies to improve connections across the state.

To commemorate its 140 year milestone, in its anniversary month of August, the company will offer $140,000 in a special round of digital equity grants from the Bell Charitable Foundation, a philanthropic endeavor launched by Hawaiian Telcom’s parent company altafiber to support nonprofit organizations where its companies provide service.

Bell Charitable Foundation will commit $1 million over the next five years to organizations that are expanding access to broadband Internet, according to a news release. 

Hawaiian Telcom and Bell Charitable Foundation have already awarded nearly $60,000 to Hawai‘i non-profits.  In 2022, Hawaiian Telcom and its employees donated more than $1.2 million to local non-profits and organizations. Click here to learn more and apply for a grant.

Other 140 anniversary milestones achieved this year include:

• Hawaiian Telcom recently celebrated Lāna‘i as the first island that is completely enabled with fiber infrastructure. 
  
• Keālia (96751) and Lāwa‘i (96765) on the island of Kaua‘i are the first two zip codes in the state that Hawaiian Telcom has completely enabled with fiber.
  
• As a tribute to Merrie Monarch King David Kalākaua, Hawaiian Telcom and its employees donated nearly $70,000 to the Kalihi-Pālama Culture & Arts Society, a nonprofit organization with a mission to educate youth and preserve authentic Hawaiian culture through hula, Hawaiian language, and music.

“We are proud to be the only company that is aggressively expanding fiber infrastructure to help bridge the digital divide here in Hawai‘i,” said Su Shin, president and general manager of Hawaiian Telcom. “Broadband access is a critical piece in building resiliency and sustainability for our state. We’re committed to empowering more communities and to improving digital equity for all residents.”

In 2022 Hawaiian Telcom invested $160 million in private capital to expand its fiber-optic cable network, increase its network capacity, and support its communications and technology solutions for customers. It also enabled an additional 55,000 additional homes and businesses with Fioptics Internet, which offers the fastest upload speed in Hawai‘i of 500 megabits per second and one gigabit per second download speed.