Hurricane Lowell left communities without power for days. Here is what that changed about the plan.
See the lessons →After Hurricane Lowell, power and ordinary communications stayed down for days. KauaiInternet is building a North Shore corridor that still carries a message when the utility grid does not.
1 · The problem
Grid down. Internet down. Kauaʻi still communicates.
Phones, fiber, and many radios plug into the same utility power. Hurricane Lowell showed what that means: days without electricity, and communities that still needed to know which roads were open, where water and food were, and how to reach a neighbor. KauaiInternet is the local layer that keeps that message moving.
2 · What Hurricane Lowell taught us
Lowell hit Kauaʻi in early September 2026. These points are from public county, utility, and news reports. KauaiInternet does not operate 911, county radio, or the broadcast stations named here.
Sept 14
Peak outage
About 33,000 customers out. Roughly 6,900 still out that morning.
Sept 21
Fourteen days later
KIUC reported restoration at 98 percent.
Sept 22
North Shore still dark
About 500 members in Wainiha and Hāʻena were still without power.
The County of Kauaʻi reported on September 14, 2026 that peak outages hit about 33,000 customers, with roughly 6,900 still out that morning. KIUC reported on September 21 that restoration had reached 98% fourteen days after Hurricane Lowell. On September 22, about 500 members in Wainiha and Hāʻena were still without power.
KKCR stayed on the air through the night of the storm, then lost internet and was running on generator fuel. Designated emergency stations ran into power problems, so large parts of the island could not hear which roads were open, where water and food were, or which facilities were operating.
Neighbors needed a way to learn road closures, water, aid, and whether a clinic or shelter was open, and a way to tell someone nearby they were all right. Official alerts still matter. Call 911 when you can, and sign up for county Everbridge alerts.
3 · What we are building
The first build is an operating resilience corridor for Hāʻena, Hanalei, Princeville, Kīlauea. It is a place where a short message and a status note still work, not a radio range test.
The first shaded towns are the North Shore pilot. Whole island turns on the other places people live, and turns them off again.
North Shore pilot only
Shaded areas are the towns the first build is for. Turn on Whole island to see the same pattern in the other places people live. The line between hubs is point-to-point, not a blanket of signal. This is not a measured coverage prediction, and no site is permitted yet.
The first build is four North Shore towns. The same idea follows the coast through the east side, Līhuʻe, the south shore, and the west end. Turn on Whole island to read that part of the plan.
72
KauaiInternet 72
Critical network nodes operate for at least 72 hours without utility power, on solar and battery.
Lowell lasted longer than 72 hours in Hāʻena, Wainiha, and Kōkeʻe. This standard is the minimum for every critical node, so the first three days are covered while utility crews are still getting in.
Solar and batteries carry the 72 hours. The generator and the spare pack are there when that is not enough.
3.2 kW solar
Eight panels refill the bank on a clear day.
Four batteries online
About 16 kWh usable. The radios and a charging outlet last 72 hours.
One hot spare
Pull a weak pack and bolt this one in. The other three stay on.
Propane generator
Refills the bank when the storm keeps the sun away.
Resilience hubs, then the link between them, then a short-range mesh.
A status note for roads, water, and aid, plus a place to charge a phone.
A radio link from one hub to the next, so the note can travel the corridor.
A short message from a handheld near the hub when phones are down.
North Shore first. East side next. The rest of the island after that.
Stage 1
North Shore Pilot
Hāʻena, Hanalei, Princeville, and Kīlauea. The first corridor that meets KauaiInternet 72.
Stage 2
North/East Expansion
Extend the same pattern toward Anahola and Kapaʻa after the pilot corridor is working.
Stage 3
Island Backbone
The same hub pattern in the towns where people live: Wailua, Līhuʻe, Kōloa, Kalaheo, Hanapēpē, Waimea, and Kekaha. Not the empty interior.
4 · When everything goes down
This is the planned behavior of the design. It is not a claim that nodes are on the air today. “All of these” means the grid, fiber, cellular, and satellite are unavailable at the same time.
These can all be down
These are designed to stay up for 72 hours
| Service | Grid down | Fiber down | Cellular down | Satellite down | All of these |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency mesh messages | Stays up | Stays up | Stays up | Stays up | Stays up for 72 hours |
| Cached hub status | Stays up | Stays up | Stays up | Stays up | Stays up for 72 hours |
| Links between hubs | Stays up | Stays up | Stays up | Stays up | Stays up for 72 hours |
| Off-island internet | Only if hub solar runs a path | Cellular or satellite | Fiber or satellite | Fiber or cellular | Down |
| Cellular alerts and phone service | Down when towers lose power | May remain | Down | May remain | Down |
Mesh, hub status, and hub-to-hub links stay up only where the node meets KauaiInternet 72. Off-island internet is a bonus path, not the service.
5 · What it costs to start
This version assumes no contributed radios, switches, batteries, or antennas. The shelf inventory is a separate asset and is not subtracted here. Four town hubs (Hāʻena, Hanalei, Princeville, Kīlauea) plus one ridge relay, because the North Shore usually needs an extra hop. A survey can drop the relay.
Capital cost to build
$274,974
New equipment, solar and batteries, generators, freight, labor, 15% overhead, Kauaʻi GET, and an 8% materials contingency.
Annual operating cost
$74,136
Includes an on-call roster, one outage week, quarterly maintenance, admin, insurance, Starlink service, generator exercise fuel, a spares reserve, and site access if the roofs are not donated.
Ubiquiti airFiber 5XHD on 5 GHz for the backbone, with 30 dBi dishes. Ubiquiti is still selling and supporting this radio. Cambium Networks Ltd went into administration on September 14, 2026, and the ePMP line was not in the product set Airspan bought on September 22. 60 GHz gear is newer on paper, and it fades in Kauaʻi rain, so it is not the primary path. Each site gets four EG4 5.12 kWh batteries online, a fifth pack as a hot spare, 3.2 kW of solar, and a propane generator. That covers the radios past 72 hours and still leaves room to charge phones. Starlink Mini is the off-island path at two hubs. Messages use current RAK WisMesh gateways.
Ubiquiti airFiber 5XHD radiosListed price
8 radios, two per hop, for 4 links. Ubiquiti’s store lists the AF-5XHD at $429. 5 GHz keeps working in heavy rain. 60 GHz does not.
Ubiquiti store, airFiber 5XHD8 × $429$3,432
Spare airFiber radiosListed price
Two spares on the shelf the day the corridor is built, so a failed radio is not a reorder from the mainland.
Ubiquiti store, airFiber 5XHD2 × $429$858
Ubiquiti RocketDish 30 dBiListed price
One RD-5G30 per radio. A distributor lists it at $182.52, rounded here.
NewTech Industries, RD-5G308 × $183$1,464
airFiber dish mount kitsAllowance
The RocketDish needs an airFiber X mount to hold a 5XHD. Allowance until that SKU is on the order.
8 × $99$792
RAK WisMesh Ethernet gatewaysListed price
One current Meshtastic gateway at each powered site. Rokland lists the PoE build at $114.97.
Rokland, WisMesh Ethernet gateway5 × $115$575
Community mesh radiosAllowance
20 current WisMesh-class handhelds, about five per town, for the short-message layer.
20 × $65$1,300
Site routersAllowance
One current MikroTik RB5009-class router at each powered site.
5 × $250$1,250
Hub computersAllowance
Four fanless edge PCs, one per town hub, to hold the cached status note. The relay does not get one.
4 × $650$2,600
Outdoor PoE switchesAllowance
One small PoE switch at each powered site.
5 × $200$1,000
Starlink Mini kitsListed price
Two kits, at Hanalei and Princeville. Starlink lists the Mini from $199. The dish stays inside the power budget. Community outlets are limited before the dish or the radios.
Starlink Mini2 × $199$398
EG4 48V 100Ah LiFePO4 batteriesListed price
Four 5.12 kWh batteries online at each site. That is 20.48 kWh nameplate, about 16 kWh usable at 80% depth of discharge. A 200 watt average load — radios, phone charging, and a light — is about 15 kWh over 72 hours. The radios alone are closer to 100 watts, so the bank covers them well past 72 hours.
SanTan Solar, EG4 LifePower4 V220 × $1,471$29,420
Hot-swap spare batteriesListed price
One extra 5.12 kWh pack at each site, stored charged. The four online packs each sit on their own fuse, so a weak pack can be unbolted and this spare bolted in while the other three keep the hub up. Three packs still hold about 12 kWh usable, roughly two days at a 200 watt load.
SanTan Solar, EG4 LifePower4 V25 × $1,471$7,355
Victron Lynx DistributorListed price
One fused DC bus per site. Four positions, one per online battery, so a single pack can be isolated without shutting the hub down. Current Connected lists the M10 at $232.90.
Current Connected, Lynx Distributor M105 × $233$1,165
Battery fusesAllowance
Four MEGA fuses plus a spare at each site. The Lynx ships without fuses.
5 × $125$625
Victron MultiPlus-II 48/5000Listed price
One 120V UL inverter/charger per site. 4,000 watts continuous and a 70 amp charger, so the hub can run a charging station and still take a generator. The charger is limited to about 2.5 kW so it stays inside the generator’s propane rating. Current Connected lists it at $1,458.60.
Current Connected, MultiPlus-II 48/5000 120V5 × $1,459$7,295
Victron SmartSolar MPPT 250/70Listed price
One charge controller per site. Eight 400W panels are about 57 amps while charging, inside the 70 amp limit. EXPLORIST.life lists it at $502.35.
EXPLORIST.life, SmartSolar MPPT 250/705 × $502$2,510
400W solar modulesAllowance
Eight modules per site, 3.2 kW. On a clear day that is on the order of 9–10 kWh, enough to run the hub and put charge back in the bank. After a storm the yield drops, which is why the generator is in the budget. Retail allowance.
40 × $210$8,400
Dual-fuel inverter generatorsListed price
One Champion 4500-watt inverter generator per site, model 201319, so no one has to haul a generator across the bridge during the storm. Propane is the storm fuel because it stores. Gasoline is the second fuel. SuperGen lists it at $959. Propane running output is about 3,150 watts.
SuperGen, Champion 2013195 × $959$4,795
Propane cacheAllowance
Four 20-pound tanks at each site, bought on Kauaʻi. One tank is about one full recharge of the online bank. Four tanks cover several cloudy days of top-ups. Tank plus the first fill.
20 × $85$1,700
Racks, racking, generator inletAllowance
Rack for four server batteries, a shelf for the spare pack, eight-panel racking, generator inlet, propane cage, surge protection, conduit, and grounding. Per-site allowance, not a quote.
5 × $2,400$12,000
Freight to KauaʻiAllowance
About four tons once the battery racks, eight-panel arrays, and generators are included. Ocean freight to Nāwiliwili, then a smaller shuttle past the Hanalei bridge, which a full box truck may not cross. Propane tanks are bought on island and are not in this weight.
1 × $18,000$18,000
Survey drone kitListed price
DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise with spare batteries and a zoom camera, bought rather than rented, so later roof and path checks use the same kit. UAV Coach lists a battery kit at $5,721.
UAV Coach, Mavic 3 Enterprise battery kit1 × $5,721$5,721
Drone path surveyAllowance
Four days with a Part 107 pilot to check line of sight on each hop and the spare ridge, including a weather hold. Day rate allowance, not an electrician hour.
4 × $1,800$7,200
Boom liftAllowance
Lift rental and delivery to the North Shore for roof mounts the drone cannot install.
1 × $3,000$3,000
PermitsAllowance
Electrical and solar permits for a 3.2 kW array and a generator at each site, plus a coastal Special Management Area allowance where Hāʻena or Hanalei sites fall inside it.
1 × $8,000$8,000
Install and alignmentAllowance
400 hours at $185. Two people for five days at each of five sites: battery rack, eight-panel array, generator inlet, radio alignment, and the drive past Princeville.
400 × $185$74,000
RF and electrical designAllowance
80 hours at $185 for the link budget, the one-line with the generator inlet and hot-swap bus, and permit drawings.
80 × $185$14,800
Starlink Roam 300GBListed price
Two dishes at $80 a month. Starlink’s published Roam 300GB plan.
Starlink service plans$1,920
Maintenance laborAllowance
Four quarterly service visits, 48 hours at the $185 bill rate. Storm response is the on-call roster and the outage week below, not this line.
$8,880
Site accessAllowance
$200 a month at five sites if the roof or yard is not donated. Drop this line if hosts give the location.
$12,000
Equipment insuranceAllowance
Inland-marine style allowance for the installed gear, including the battery racks and generators. Not a broker quote.
$3,600
Admin and bookkeepingAllowance
About four hours a month to pay bills and track spares. Updating the status note during an outage is the outage-week line.
$4,800
On-call rosterAllowance
Two local people, primary and backup, alternating weeks, so someone can reach the North Shore. $60 a day for the person carrying the phone, 365 days. That is availability, not the repair rate. They answer, start a generator, swap a battery, and call the backup if they cannot get there.
$21,900
Outage operationsAllowance
One week of active response in the year: two people, eight hours a day, 80 hours at the $185 bill rate. They check each site, run the generator if the array is down, swap a pack if one fails, and keep the cached status note current. A longer outage adds hours beyond this allowance.
$14,800
Generator exercise fuelAllowance
A short monthly run at each site so the propane generator starts when the storm actually comes. Allowance for fuel, not a delivery contract.
$900
Spares reserveAllowance
Annual set-aside toward a replacement radio, a battery, or a generator hose. The batteries themselves are warrantied for about 10 years.
$2,000
Kauaʻi GET
$3,336
Prices checked October 2026. Listed lines are the published price rounded to the dollar. Allowances are not vendor quotes. Overhead is 15% of equipment, power, freight, and labor. Kauaʻi general excise tax is 4.5% charged on the tax itself (about 4.71%). The materials contingency is $10,468. Install labor is priced at $185 an hour. That is a Kauaʻi contractor bill rate for a licensed electrician and a helper, above the roughly $47 journey-worker wage in local job postings. It is not the $89.71 prevailing-wage total, which is a wage-plus-fringe figure for covered public work, not a bill rate. The earlier $150 rate did not cover a four-day site or the North Shore shuttle. The backbone is unlicensed 5 GHz, so it does not depend on a 6 GHz frequency coordinator.
Demonstration, not a live network
SimulatedThe figures below are sample numbers for a planning dashboard. They are not coverage on Kauaʻi, and no nodes are on the air.
Sample figures only · 3/5 Internet gateways · 7/9 Backbone nodes · 16/18 LoRa relays
Explore Your Community
See how resilience, connectivity, emergency readiness, and future community projects may relate to your location.
Network Map
ProposedTeal areas are the North Shore communities the pilot is meant to serve. The gold line is the proposed link between hubs. All locations are approximate until field surveys and permissions are complete. This is not a measured signal map.
Route visualization
SimulatedPrinceville → Kapaʻa — educational simulation only, not live routing.
On the shelf
This stock is real, and it is older than the radios in the pilot budget. The cost section buys the corridor new. None of these units are subtracted from that budget, and none of them are deployed.
397
Total units
38
Unique SKUs
8
Categories
What the gear enables
Point-to-point radios and sector antennas connect ridge relays to coastal hubs — creating paths that don't depend on a single fiber route.
Backhaul radios, antennas, routing
Access points at schools, community centers, and assembly points give residents a connection when home internet goes dark.
Access points, switching, power
Satellite uplink kits maintain a failover path when submarine fiber or primary ISP links are disrupted during storms.
Starlink kits, routing failover
Local servers cache critical data, run DNS, and relay emergency alerts — keeping island services alive when upstream is degraded.
Edge servers, switching, rack power
UPS, batteries, and solar-ready power keep nodes running through multi-hour or multi-day grid outages.
Batteries, PDU, UPS, rack infrastructure
Pilot framing: Inventory is grouped below by network role. Each category explains how the gear could support a resilience pilot — not a finished island network. Additional sites, funding, fiber paths, and operational capacity are still required.
Core and access-layer switches, routers, and patch infrastructure for site interconnect.
Possible pilot role
Enough switching to wire 2–3 pilot sites and a small edge aggregation point — not island-wide core capacity.
Use cases on Kauai
Items in stock
Copper Switch RB5009
MikroTik
MikroTik Outdoor Copper Switches (Used)
MikroTik
MikroTik Network Switch
MikroTik
MikroTik Router
MikroTik
MikroTik Cloud Switch
MikroTik
MikroTik Cloud Switch Router
MikroTik
Edge Router
MikroTik SFP Switch
MikroTik
USW Pro Max
Ubiquiti
Ubiquiti Pro Max PoE Switch
Ubiquiti
Cisco 9300 Nexus
Cisco
Nano Switch
Ubiquiti
Point-to-point and high-capacity wireless links between ridge relays and hub sites.
Possible pilot role
Strong backhaul stock for linking a handful of ridge and coastal nodes in a pilot corridor.
Use cases on Kauai
Items in stock
NanoBeam 5AC
Ubiquiti
AirFiber 60XR UISP
Ubiquiti
Tachyon TNA 302
Tachyon
LTE, Wi-Fi, and fixed wireless radios for last-mile and community access.
Possible pilot role
Radios to serve pilot coverage zones — additional licensing, backhaul, and sites still needed beyond inventory.
Use cases on Kauai
Items in stock
Baicell Nova 430i
Baicell
Window Units Baicell
Baicell
Rocket 5AC AP
Ubiquiti
Baicell NR 11
Baicell
Wave Nano
Wave AP
Baicell 846
Baicell
Sector, panel, and mounting hardware for relay and access deployments.
Possible pilot role
Mounting and antenna stock to support multiple relay builds; site surveys still required per location.
Use cases on Kauai
Items in stock
KPP Dual-Band 8-Port Antenna
NetPoint Antenna
J Mount
Long J Mount
PDUs, UPS, injectors, patch panels, and rack power for sheltered deployments.
Possible pilot role
Rack and power basics for a few sheltered nodes — outdoor power design still needed per site.
Use cases on Kauai
Items in stock
CAT 24 Patch Panel
Power Strip for Rack
Ubiquiti Dual Power Injector
Ubiquiti
Power Control
Power Supply
PDU
CyberPower UPS
CyberPower
Small-form-factor servers and industrial PCs for local caching, DNS, and services.
Possible pilot role
Compute to stand up one edge pilot node with local services — not a full data center build-out.
Use cases on Kauai
Items in stock
Micro PC
Dell Micro PC
Dell
IPC
Satellite and alternate uplink kits for redundancy when fiber or terrestrial links fail.
Possible pilot role
Two Starlink kits can backup a pilot uplink — not enough for island-wide satellite redundancy.
Use cases on Kauai
Items in stock
Starlink Setup
Starlink
Battery banks and resilience power for tower and relay runtime during grid outages.
Possible pilot role
Battery stock to support several tower sites in a pilot — solar, generator, and sizing work still TBD.
Use cases on Kauai
Items in stock
Tower Site Batteries
Pilot Program
ProposedAn operating resilience corridor for Hāʻena, Hanalei, Princeville, and Kīlauea. Hubs, a wireless backbone, and an emergency mesh that keep a message moving when utility power is out.
Capital $274,974
Operating $74,136 per year
October 2026 budget to buy the corridor new. No contributed gear is subtracted. Listed hardware uses published prices. Labor, freight, cabinets, and overhead are allowances, not quotes.
See the cost sectionJoin the PilotHost a Node
Community members can help by hosting nodes — roof access, tower sites, solar, fiber, Starlink, generator backup, or technical skills. Precise site details are kept private and reviewed by our team before any public map display.
Technology
The pilot budget buys Ubiquiti airFiber 5XHD radios for the backbone. Cambium’s UK company entered administration in September 2026, so that vendor is not in the plan. 60 GHz is skipped because Kauaʻi rain fades it. RAK WisMesh carries short messages, and Starlink Mini is the off-island path. Each site carries four batteries online, a fifth pack that swaps in live, a 3.2 kW array, and a propane generator. The older NanoBeam stock on the shelf is not part of this design. Protocol notes for LoRa, Reticulum, and Meshtastic stay here.
Candidate foundation for heterogeneous networking
Reticulum can create encrypted networks across heterogeneous links — LoRa, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, radio, and Internet paths — treating them as parts of one resilient system.
Rapid LoRa experimentation and community-accessible mesh
Meshtastic enables quick LoRa mesh prototyping. It is not the entire KauaiInternet architecture — it helps us test range, antennas, and community UX before deeper Reticulum integration.
Low-power resilient digital data
LoRa carries small amounts of data over long distances with minimal power — ideal for relay nodes and emergency check-ins when broadband fails.
Parallel voice workstream — not replaced by data mesh
Traditional radio remains valuable for immediate group voice. KauaiInternet investigates lawful integration with repeaters, community radio, and radio-over-IP gateways.
Layer 1–2 local access
High-bandwidth local access when power and backhaul permit.
Gateway backhaul when fiber or cellular fails
Backup off-island path — not a replacement for local mesh.
Reticulum — heterogeneous transport (evaluation)
LoRa ──────┐
│
Wi-Fi ───────┼──── RETICULUM ──── Ethernet
│
Radio ────┤
│
Internet / Satellite ──┘
Multiple physical links → one logical resilient networkReticulum is under evaluation — not deployed operationally on Kauaʻi.
Meshtastic
Rapid LoRa experimentation
Community-accessible mesh prototyping, North Shore pilot tests
Reticulum
Heterogeneous network foundation
Multi-transport routing, encrypted island-wide logical network
K1
Community Node
Home or business local access point
K2
Relay Node
Low-cost resilient repeater
K3
Backbone Node
Strategic elevated site
K4
Gateway Node
Connects KauaiInternet to external networks
K5
Community Resilience Hub
School, shelter, clinic, or community facility (proposed partnerships only)
Regulatory workstream
This is a planning workstream, not legal advice. Consult qualified counsel before operating any radio or communications service.
The app
The hubs and radios do not help if the only way to use them is a laptop in a cabinet. A phone app pairs with a WisMesh radio for short messages, shows the hub’s status note, and lets the people on call shed load and mark a battery swap.
A short text that queues on the radio and hops toward the next hub.
Which towns you can reach from here, and which hop is weak.
Shed Starlink or the charging outlet, and swap one pack while the hub stays up.
Island Mode
ProposedIsland Mode occurs when Kauaʻi loses significant upstream Internet connectivity but the local KauaiInternet network remains operational. Local messaging, emergency information, maps, and community bulletins can continue — where nodes remain powered.
Demo — toggle network states
Internet available
Full connectivity to global Internet and local Kauaʻi network.
What this mode keeps lit
Every planned path is available, including the hop off-island.
UX concept only — literal .local mDNS architecture requires separate networking evaluation.
🟢
Global Mode
Internet available
🟠
Island Mode
Mainland connectivity unavailable
🔴
Emergency Mesh Mode
Broadband infrastructure degraded
Roadmap
North Shore Pilot, then North/East expansion, then an island backbone. The phase list below is the longer record. Nothing here implies guaranteed timelines or funding.
Define network layers, evaluate technologies, build planning tools.
Stand up the Hāʻena–Hanalei–Princeville–Kīlauea corridor to the KauaiInternet 72 standard.
Hubs, a wireless backbone, and an emergency mesh along the North Shore corridor.
Extend pilot toward Kapaʻa and Wailua corridor.
Island backbone and the work that follows the corridor
Investigate 6–10 strategic backbone locations island-wide.
Partner with schools, shelters, and community facilities.
Deploy local-only services when upstream Internet fails.
Offer residential and business connectivity where sustainable.
Sustained community-governed communications infrastructure.
What exists today
Before exploring future possibilities, we start with what is publicly known about service types available on the island. We do not display coverage maps or claim service at specific addresses.
Important: Availability varies by address and terrain. Always verify with providers directly. If you have local knowledge, share it on the map under “What Residents Know.”
Primary local telecommunications provider serving Hawaiʻi with fiber and other services.
Fiber and internet services are offered on Kauai in many populated areas. Availability varies significantly by street address.
Verify service at your address on the provider website — coverage is not uniform island-wide.
National cable and internet provider with presence in Hawaiʻi markets.
Cable internet may be available in some Kauai communities. Not all neighborhoods are served.
Address-level availability check required. We do not display coverage maps on this site.
Low-earth-orbit satellite internet used by some Kauai residents and businesses.
Satellite service depends on clear sky view and equipment. Used as primary or backup connectivity in some areas.
Community observations welcome — many residents report using Starlink where wired options are limited.
National mobile carrier with cellular service across parts of Kauai.
Mobile voice and data vary by location, terrain, and indoor conditions. Not a substitute for fixed broadband everywhere.
Signal strength is location-specific. We do not publish coverage polygons.
National mobile carrier serving portions of the island.
Cellular coverage exists in many corridors but weak spots are common in valleys and remote areas.
Verify at your location. Community outage reports help us understand real-world experience.
National mobile carrier with service in parts of Kauai.
Mobile connectivity available in many areas with significant variation by terrain and weather.
No coverage guarantees displayed here — share your observations to help neighbors.
Emergency communications include county systems, amateur radio networks, and official alert channels. Detailed asset locations are not published here until verified — Data Needed in several areas.
Connectivity Explorer
Click a region to see known service types, community observations, gaps where we need more data, and resilience considerations. We never present speculation as fact.
Your connection
See your network details and run a quick speed check. Shared results help build a community knowledge base of island infrastructure — never sold, never used for coverage claims.
Your IP (masked)
…
Provider
Detecting…
Location (approx.)
—
Latency
—
Download
—
Upload
—
Jitter
—
Map legend
Verified Information
Publicly known facilities and general provider facts — not address-level coverage
Community-Contributed Information
Neighbor observations — helpful context, not verified facts
Future Opportunities
Ideas under discussion — not existing infrastructure
Region profile
Līhuʻe and surrounding areas — primary services and fiber handoff zone.
Public facilities we can name without inventing infrastructure locations.
Address Impact Explorer
See how resilience, connectivity, emergency readiness, and future community projects may relate to your location. The first question we answer: How does this affect me?
Live, Scene, and Ground open a sample Hanalei address until you search your own
Today ← → Future Possibilities
See how community projects and resources could grow over time
Search for your home, business, school, or neighborhood to see how resilience, connectivity, and community projects may relate to you.
Community Conversation
A place to share questions, ideas, concerns, and opportunities related to Kauai's future resilience.
Kauai residents hold many different perspectives regarding technology, health, privacy, environmental stewardship, emergency preparedness, and development.
This project is intended to support a transparent community conversation. Questions and concerns are welcome. Ideas and participation are welcome.
Our goal is to learn together and explore solutions that strengthen the island while respecting the values of the community.
This is not a debate section. It is a listening and transparency space. We are exploring — not announcing finished plans. No conclusions are predetermined.
“I support better connectivity, but I want to understand what equipment might be near homes and schools before anything is considered.”
Add a question or concern tied to a neighborhood. Your marker appears on the Community Questions & Concerns map layer — alongside other voices from across the island.
View on community mapCommunity Map
Start with what exists today — verified facilities, regional connectivity knowledge, and neighbor observations. Future ideas stay visually distinct.
Community Resilience
Businesses and Internet customers help fund a communications network the entire island can depend on during emergencies. Basic emergency and local messaging should remain accessible without expensive subscriptions.
Future lightweight messaging — transport selected automatically by the network.
KauaiInternet messaging is not a replacement for 911 or official emergency dispatch unless and until formal integrations exist. In an emergency, call 911 when possible.
Personal / community LoRa node
Concept — not available for purchase
Home resilient communications gateway
Concept — not available for purchase
Business / resilience gateway
Concept — not available for purchase
Solar outdoor relay
Concept — not available for purchase
Professional infrastructure node
Concept — not available for purchase
Ways to Help
Participation should feel welcoming and simple. Choose the path that fits you — or just say you want to stay informed.
Offer rooftop, tower, or sheltered space for community infrastructure.
Get startedShare property that could support a hub, shelter, or gathering place.
Get startedSchools, nonprofits, agencies, and businesses can partner on local projects.
Get startedLend your time, skills, or local knowledge to move projects forward.
Get startedHelp fund pilots, equipment, and community readiness efforts.
Get startedStay informed as the community blueprint grows — no commitment required.
Get startedUse Cases
Real scenarios the gear and sites are being planned for — each scoped as a pilot contribution, not a claim of full deployment.
Aggregate traffic from 2–3 pilot nodes with VLAN segmentation between emergency, community, and backhaul networks.
Pilot role
Wire a small edge closet or rack at a community anchor or data-center-edge candidate site.
Connect a high-site ridge relay to a coastal hub using point-to-point 5 GHz or 60 GHz links.
Pilot role
Link one ridge relay to one hub in a pilot corridor — line-of-sight surveys required.
Provide public emergency Wi-Fi at a school, community center, or assembly point during outages.
Pilot role
Cover a single public Wi-Fi zone; backhaul and power must be provisioned separately.
Deliver broadband to remote pockets not served by resilient fiber paths.
Pilot role
Serve a limited subscriber pilot — not a replacement for island-wide ISP coverage.
Mount sector and panel antennas on J-mounts or tower structures for ridge and rooftop relays.
Pilot role
Hardware ready for several mounts; structural and permit review still needed per site.
PDU, UPS, and rack power for a small indoor edge or switching closet.
Pilot role
Power a few sheltered racks — outdoor/tower power engineering is a separate effort.
Run DNS caching, local alert relay, and lightweight apps when upstream connectivity is degraded.
Pilot role
Stand up one pilot edge node — scaling requires more compute, power, and cooling planning.
Maintain a backup internet path when submarine fiber or primary ISP links are disrupted.
Pilot role
Backup one pilot hub uplink — additional kits and sites needed for broader redundancy.
Keep ridge relays and emergency anchors powered through multi-hour or multi-day grid failures.
Pilot role
Support runtime at several tower sites in a pilot — full resilience sizing not yet complete.
Partner Opportunities
Each initiative starts with a simple question: who benefits, and how can neighbors participate?
Why it matters
When home internet fails, public gathering places can become lifelines for families, students, and neighbors.
Who benefits
Residents, visitors, schools, and local organizations during outages.
Ways to participate
Why it matters
Storms and outages isolate neighborhoods — local readiness helps people get information and support faster.
Who benefits
First responders, families, elders, and rural communities.
Ways to participate
Why it matters
Stronger neighborhoods start with places people already trust — schools, churches, and community centers.
Who benefits
Whole neighborhoods, especially areas prone to flooding or isolation.
Ways to participate
Why it matters
Schools are anchors for learning, family communication, and community assembly when crises hit.
Who benefits
Students, teachers, parents, and surrounding neighborhoods.
Ways to participate
Why it matters
Shared knowledge builds lasting resilience — not just equipment, but people who know how to help.
Who benefits
Volunteers, small businesses, nonprofits, and civic groups.
Ways to participate
Get Involved
Whether you can host a site, volunteer your time, represent an organization, or simply want to stay informed — your voice belongs in this movement.
Voices from the community
“We lost internet for 3 days during the last storm. A local mesh network would have kept our family connected to emergency updates.”
“I have ridge-line property with clear sight lines to Līhuʻe. Happy to host a relay site if it helps the community.”
“Our clinic needs redundant connectivity for telehealth. This initiative is exactly what Kauai healthcare has been asking for.”
Tell us who you are and how you can help. Submissions are sent securely to the KauaiInternet team and saved for follow-up.