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January 29, 2014

Kauai Internet

There are two major internet providers here on Kauai - Oceanic (Time-Warner cable) and Hawaiian Telcom. Oceanic has the fastest residential service, up to 100Mbps; Hawaiian Telcom goes up to 50Mbps; see the web site for details of all the services and bundles they have. More than one person has warned me away from Hawaiian Telcom (but I have no experience with them one way or the other myself, this is just here-say).

Both high-end service plans offer only up to 5Mbps upload which is not great but sufficient for video chat (e.g. Skype, Facetime, Hangout ... if you don't know what these are, never mind) which is where upload speed counts for most people. Also if you upload a lot of files such as to YouTube this will be a little slow. 100Mbps is probably more than we need but since this means "up to" - as opposed to "guaranteed to be at least" - it is probably worth it and I will have good cause to complain if it gets really slow. It looks like business class service is needed to get higher speeds that this.

If you think about, the idea of buying any service from an "up to" offer is audacious: they are only telling you the best it can be, not the minimum you can expect. Consider a restaurant that offers meals that may "occasionally be really delicious"; getting an oil change that sometimes finishes "in as little as thirty minutes"; or setting your house thermostat for a cold night to "to as warm as 70 degrees". Unless the service operates faster than the rated maximum they are fulfilling their promise to you.

Ultimate 100 (up to 100Mbps)
Monthly Charges
Service $79.99
Modem/Wi-Fi box $5.99
Total Monthly Charges $85.98
Today I ordered the fastest residential Oceanic plan today. There is a one-time $29.95 installation charge. The first available installation appointment was about five days out.

Signing up on the web, their system did not understand my address, but I would expect they have already wired the neighborhood as it is a relatively new development with a lot of houses.

If this works out well for you, refer a friend and you get a month free.... twelve friends a year would make it free!

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