Power,internet, and bringing a job with you

[EvilOctopus]

Having gone through this myself recently, here's what happened:

We live in a place only Aloha Broadband services - the speeds are generally horrible and it frequently drops out. Trying to vpn to the company network is a nightmare on aloha broadband - let alone if you need to upload files larger than a few MBs.

Ended up renting a separate studio office in Pahoa for internet access. Landlord told me to go with Hawaii Tel - but it stayed up for about a day and then was down for two weeks. If you need to call support, expect to be on hold with horrible music for at least an hour. If it ever goes down again, I'm switching to Oceanic. But at least for the moment, I get 20 down and 3 up.

Some cafe's and businesses in Pahoa rent internet or share... but it's really slow and over-utilized. I ended up having to use my phone as a hotspot and went over my data plan twice.

So there are some issues... expect to experience a few hiccups that will be frustrating and make you want to pull your hair out - but once everything is working, it's awesome.

[kalakoa]

If high-speed Internet is really critical to your lifestyle choice, don't bother with the consumer-grade offerings from Aloha, Telcom, or Oceanic.

Yes, the commercial service will cost 5-10x more, but it's dedicated bandwidth with a real service level agreement.

Also note that the small equipment load of a typical office can easily be powered with a mini solar system -- and this can be a cheap investment in reliability, even where grid power is availalble.

[ironfinn]

I've been working from home in Hawaiian Shores for a little over 2 months now. I have Oceanic and haven't had any issues yet. I'm consistently getting over 50 down and 5 up so I'm pretty happy with the service so far. I was expecting more trouble.

[MarkP]

I essentially work from my off-grid home over the internet. I do however have the option of physically going to the plants if all else fails.

[ericlp]

A combination of Time Warner, and AT&T at 4G is well, as good as it gets around here. I'm not here 24/7, but when I am, I've never had the net go down. Tho, when I first got here, it went down every time the wind blew (albizia)... Now that it's all cut back reliability shot up 10 fold. With 4G, from cell as a backup... doubtful you're gonna find anything on this island with better options. Other than, move to hilo and sit next to the fiber optic cable.

[kylepfister]

I work remotely from Seaview as well. Aloha Broadband gets me 4Mbps down, but drops out nearly every day. Service has gotten significantly worse over the course of the year. I was considering the option of bringing a couple more developers from my company to the area, but when the visit they aren't able to code with the speeds. Wish we had TWC speeds in Puna!

[Gus]

Susan, Orchidlands only has DSL at up tp 7 megs. HPP (30th and Makuu) gives me the option of DSL for $25 or TWC at 100 megs for $40. I decided to try TWC.