Hawaiian Tel rival
to switch on network

GST Telecommunications
now has its own fiber optics
linking six islands

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The first interisland fiber-optic telecommunications network to include Molokai and Lanai will be formally switched on this evening by GST Telecommunications Hawaii Inc., which spent $30 million on the system to compete with GTE Hawaiian Tel.

The company, a subsidiary of GST Telecommunications Inc. of Vancouver, Wash., so far serves only a few business buildings and a small Maui housing cluster with its own lines. However, it plans a complete land-based fiber-optic net of its own, to serve homes and businesses in direct competition with Hawaiian Tel.

The company is already selling telephone and other telecommunications services that use Hawaiian Tel's system, at slightly lower rates than Hawaiian Tel charges.

Hawaiian Tel has had a submarine fiber-optic system in place since mid-1994, connecting Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island. GST's cables, more than 300 miles long, parallel Hawaiian Tel's and bring in the other two islands.

Over the next two years, GST plans to add 500 miles of fiber-optic lines on land, a further $50 million investment that will allow connections throughout the state.

"We will market aggressively as we begin ramping up our local dial-tone services throughout Hawaii," said Joseph A. Basile Jr., president and chief operating officer of the parent GST Telecommunications.

Rob Volker, Honolulu-based regional vice president, said GST will offer Hawaii consumers a wide range of products and services, including local and long distance phone service, videoconferencing and Internet service through GST Hawaii OnLine.

"With a strategic location in the middle of the Pacific, Hawaii is largely a gateway to the Pacific Rim, Southeast Asia and beyond," Volker said. "There's a large portion of international traffic that originates and terminates here." Volker said GST system connects directly to all the existing international submarine cables available in Hawaii.

GST and other competitors were able to enter the market after the Federal Telecommunications Act last year required existing telecommunications utilities such as Hawaiian Tel to permit outsiders to use their systems in return for negotiated fees.

GST has scheduled an open house at its offices at 737 Bishop St. this evening to show off a variety of telecommunications services and said it will kick off the submarine network with a six-island videoconference.