Honolulu is mostly a Spectrum and Hawaiian Telcom market. Spectrum Business has the dominant cable footprint across Oahu. Hawaiian Telcom has fiber in parts of the city and Honolulu's commercial corridors. T-Mobile fixed wireless coverage is patchier than mainland markets but improving.
The pricing problem in Honolulu is that island markets get worse pricing than mainland markets at the same speed. Backhaul costs and limited carrier competition push retail rates 20 to 30 percent above mainland equivalents.
How Honolulu's market actually works
Honolulu's commercial demand sits in three places. The Downtown Honolulu central business district along Bishop Street and Fort Street Mall holds the metro's legal, financial, and government corridor and the bulk of Hawaii-based corporate headquarters tenancy. Kakaako, between downtown and Ala Moana, has shifted from light-industrial into a redeveloping mixed-use commercial district. Ala Moana itself anchors the metro's largest mid-size office and Class A retail cluster. The Queen's Health Systems and the broader Hawaii corporate-headquarters base concentrated downtown drive most of the enterprise telecom demand on Oahu.
In May 2023, DRFortress completed the fourth expansion of its Honolulu data center campus, adding 220 cabinets and more carrier-neutral colocation capacity for an island market with limited backhaul redundancy. One regulatory wrinkle: Hawaii handles cable franchising at the state level, with the DCCA Cable Television Division granting new franchises and renewals statewide, so franchise leverage at the city level does not exist here.
What you should be paying
These are dedicated internet ranges from current carrier wholesale data, marked up to typical retail.
Honolulu dedicated internet, typical retail (mid 50%)
Monthly recurring charge, dedicated internet access (DIA). Numbers are derived from current carrier wholesale quotes. Shown as a metro-tier band where city-level data is thin.
| Speed | Typical retail (mid 50%) | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| 100 Mbps | $630 – $1,060/mo | n = 6 |
| 500 Mbps | $955 – $1,660/mo | n = 6 |
| 1 Gbps | $1,195 – $2,000/mo | n = 7 |
| 10 Gbps | $1,560 – $6,250/mo | n = 6 |
If your bill sits above the high end of the band, you are likely overpaying.
Analyze My Bill FreeFor Spectrum coax at 600 Mbps, the fair price is $180 to $280 a month for a single office. For Hawaiian Telcom Business Fiber at 1 Gbps, expect $200 to $300 a month.
Carriers worth quoting in Honolulu
Four carriers cover most addresses in the metro.
- Spectrum Business. Coax everywhere, fiber in select buildings.
- Hawaiian Telcom Business. Fiber in commercial corridors and parts of the city.
- T-Mobile Business Internet. $85 a month for 200 to 300 Mbps where coverage is strong.
- Verizon 5G Business Internet. $99 a month at 400 Mbps where coverage is strong.
If you have not had two of these on a quote sheet, you have not run a real comparison.
What to do this week
- Pull your most recent invoice. Find the contract end date and the side fees.
- Get one quote from Hawaiian Telcom. They often beat Spectrum on fiber to the building.
- Compare your base rate to the bands above. If you are 20 percent above the high end, the retention call is worth making.
See where your Honolulu bill sits against current rates
Upload your latest business internet invoice. We will run it against Honolulu carrier wholesale data and flag the side fees that should not be there.
Takes 60 seconds. No account required.