Hurricane Lowell left communities without power for days. Here is what that changed about the plan.
See the lessons →Cell service along the North Shore is already thin on an ordinary day. After Hurricane Lowell, power and phones stayed down for days. This corridor is the powered sites and the wireless backhaul those two problems share.
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.
Everyday cell service on this coast is already a reason to build. In May 2024, Kauaʻi Fire and Emergency Management told the County Council that service in Hāʻena and at Keʻē frequently drops, or is absent, when someone needs to call for help. The Associated Press reported lifeguards at Keʻē sometimes walk the beach looking for a signal.
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 adds those towns to the cost.
North Shore pilot onlyNorth Shore first
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 line is the link from one community site to the next, not a blanket of phone signal. The color is the town, not a measured coverage map, and no site has a permit 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.
Batteries online
Seven at each town hub, about 29 kWh usable, so the phone radio lasts 72 hours at full draw. The ridge relay stays at four.
One hot spare
Pull a weak pack and bolt this one in. The packs still online 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. On an ordinary day it is backhaul. In an outage the note still travels the corridor.
A short message from a handheld near the hub when phones are down.
The airFiber link connects the hubs. It does not put a signal on a phone. Each town hub gets one BLiNQ phone radio covering about 180° of that town, so a phone that joins this network can use it there on an ordinary day. The backbone is what carries that traffic off the valley.
After: towns the new phone radios are aimed atAfter: the four towns that would get a phone signal
Teal marks the four towns. Each town hub gets one BLiNQ radio covering about 180° of that town. A phone shows this network after it installs the profile. The shade is the town, not a measured signal contour, and it is not Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile.Teal marks the four towns. A phone uses this signal after it is set up for this network. The color is the town, not a measured footprint, and it is not Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile.
After: the four North Shore towns.The four towns. To build $375,829. Each year $80,419.
Ordinary day
A radio here stays on when the utility blinks, so everyday service on the site does not wait for KIUC.
Power or internet down
Solar and battery cover 72 hours. The generator refills after that.
Ordinary day
This is backhaul. A home internet link, or a carrier small cell on the same site, uses it to reach the rest of the internet.
Power or internet down
The status note and short messages still move from Hāʻena to Kīlauea.
Ordinary day
Starlink at two hubs, and Wi-Fi in the building, so a phone there can load a page or place a Wi-Fi call every day.
Power or internet down
If the path off the island dies, the cached note at the hub remains.
Ordinary day
One BLiNQ FW-300i at each town hub, covering about 180° of that town. A phone that installs this profile can call and use data there on an ordinary day.
Power or internet down
The radio draws up to 180 watts. Seven batteries at the town hub keep that maximum inside the 72 hours.
| Already in this pilot | Ordinary day | Power or internet down |
|---|---|---|
| Powered site | A radio here stays on when the utility blinks, so everyday service on the site does not wait for KIUC. | Solar and battery cover 72 hours. The generator refills after that. |
| Town-to-town backbone | This is backhaul. A home internet link, or a carrier small cell on the same site, uses it to reach the rest of the internet. | The status note and short messages still move from Hāʻena to Kīlauea. |
| Internet at the hub | Starlink at two hubs, and Wi-Fi in the building, so a phone there can load a page or place a Wi-Fi call every day. | If the path off the island dies, the cached note at the hub remains. |
| Band 48 phone radios | One BLiNQ FW-300i at each town hub, covering about 180° of that town. A phone that installs this profile can call and use data there on an ordinary day. | The radio draws up to 180 watts. Seven batteries at the town hub keep that maximum inside the 72 hours. |
Still a later step
A Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile phone does not join this network by itself. Their bars still need their own radio, or an agreement to share the site. This budget buys the Band 48 radios, not theirs.
Still a later step
A house the town radio can see uses this network once the phone has the profile. A house behind a ridge is a gap-fill pocket, not a radio on every home. A subscriber radio for each house is still not in the pilot price.
Still a later step
The mesh carries a short message when a phone has no service. Putting bars on a phone is a different radio.
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. Whole island adds these towns to the cost.
Stage 3
Island Backbone
The same hub pattern in the towns where people live: Wailua, Līhuʻe, Kōloa, Kalaheo, Hanapēpē, Waimea, and Kekaha. Whole island adds these towns to the cost. 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. Each town hub gets one BLiNQ FW-300i phone radio, covering about 180° of that town. Smaller solar nodes for the pockets that face misses are a later phase and are not in this price. A Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile radio, and a radio on every house, are still later purchases. Turn on Gap fill to add the eight pockets, $527,087 to build and $106,723 a year. Turn on Whole island to add the other coastal towns, $1,086,901 to build and $177,581 a year.
Capital cost to build
$375,829
New equipment, solar and batteries, generators, freight, labor, 15% overhead, Kauaʻi GET, and an 8% materials contingency.
Annual operating cost
$80,419
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. It stays up in rain when a clean channel is available, and it is the radio a working fixed-wireless builder would still use for most links. Ubiquiti’s newer Wave MLO5 can bond more 5 GHz spectrum for multi-gigabit speed and also does not fade in rain, but this pilot does not need that speed and wide channels are harder to find. Phones do not join that backbone. Each town hub gets one BLiNQ FW-300i on Band 48, the shared CBRS band, covering about 180° of that town, so a phone that installs this network’s profile has LTE there. Town hubs get seven EG4 5.12 kWh batteries online so the phone radio stays inside 72 hours at its published maximum draw. The ridge relay stays at four. Every site keeps a hot spare, 3.2 kW of solar, and a propane generator. 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. The phone radio runs on the 48 volt battery bus, not on this switch.
5 × $200$1,000
BLiNQ FW-300i phone radiosListed price
One at each town hub, none at the ridge relay. BLiNQ’s shop lists the Band 48 model at $8,000, with the mount and a 48 volt jumper. It is one box with about 180° of coverage, so it faces the town instead of three separate sectors. BLiNQ lists up to 53 dBm EIRP per sector; a Category B grant is capped at 47 dBm per 10 MHz, and the grant sets the power. Maximum draw is 180 watts, off the 48 volt battery bus. The map still shades the town, not a measured contour. A phone uses this after it installs a profile. It stays a Band 48 network, not Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile.
BLiNQ shop, FW-300i Band 484 × $8,000$32,000
Spare phone radioListed price
One spare FW-300i, so a failed town radio is a swap and not a mainland reorder.
BLiNQ shop, FW-300i Band 481 × $8,000$8,000
Embedded core licensesListed price
BLiNQ’s embedded EPC license is $750 and runs inside one base station, so the town does not need a separate core server. Five licenses: four live radios and the spare.
BLiNQ shop, embedded EPC license5 × $750$3,750
First 100 phone profilesAllowance
SIM or eSIM cards so the first neighbors can join the Band 48 network. The core license is a separate line. No single catalog price covers the card pack. Allowance, not a carrier plan.
1 × $1,500$1,500
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 online at the ridge relay, seven online at each town hub. Seven packs are 35.84 kWh nameplate, about 29 kWh usable at 80% depth of discharge. The phone radio’s published maximum is 180 watts, so a town hub is about 380 watts and about 27 kWh over 72 hours. That fits the seven-pack bank. The ridge relay stays near 200 watts and keeps four packs.
SanTan Solar, EG4 LifePower4 V232 × $1,471$47,072
Hot-swap spare batteriesListed price
One extra 5.12 kWh pack at each site, stored charged. A weak online pack can be unbolted and this spare bolted in while the others keep the hub up. At a town hub, six packs remain until the spare is in, about 25 kWh usable. At the ridge relay, three remain, about 12 kWh.
SanTan Solar, EG4 LifePower4 V25 × $1,471$7,355
Victron Lynx DistributorListed price
One fused DC bus at the ridge relay, two at each town hub. Two distributors give eight fuse positions. Seven packs sit online, and the spare can take the eighth during a swap. Current Connected lists the M10 at $232.90.
Current Connected, Lynx Distributor M109 × $233$2,097
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 space for the online batteries, including seven packs at each town hub, a shelf for the spare, 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, the four phone-radio mounts, plus a coastal Special Management Area allowance where Hāʻena or Hanalei sites fall inside it.
1 × $10,000$10,000
CBRS installer registrationAllowance
A certified professional installer has to register each Category B radio with a spectrum system before it can transmit. Allowance for four radios. Not a vendor quote.
1 × $1,600$1,600
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
Phone-radio installAllowance
64 hours at $185. Two people for one day at each town hub to mount the FW-300i, aim its 180° face at the town, land it on the 48 volt bus, and confirm a handset joins.
64 × $185$11,840
RF and electrical designAllowance
80 hours at $185 for the link budget, the Band 48 sector aim, 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
Spectrum access systemListed price
Key Bridge Wireless lists $500 a month, and that base fee includes the first 200 radios. Four phone radios fit inside it. Google is not taking new SAS customers. The radios cannot legally transmit on Band 48 without a grant.
Key Bridge Wireless, June 16, 2026$6,000
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
$3,619
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 $15,863. 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.
After: the four North Shore towns. This follows Gap fill and Whole island.
Capital $375,829
Operating $80,419 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. They are rock solid on 5 GHz when a clean channel is available, and they do not fade in Kauaʻi rain the way 60 GHz does. Ubiquiti’s Wave MLO5 is the newer radio: it can use more spectrum for much higher speed, and it is also 5 GHz, so rain is not the problem. The pilot stays on airFiber because a status note and short messages do not need multi-gigabit links, and a wide channel is harder to find. Phones do not join that link. One BLiNQ FW-300i at each town hub covers about 180° of Band 48 LTE for a phone that installs this network’s profile. RAK WisMesh carries short messages, and Starlink Mini is the off-island path. Town hubs carry seven batteries online, the ridge relay carries four, and every site keeps a 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.
Neighbor version
On the North Shore, calls already drop. After Hurricane Lowell, the power and the phones stayed down for days. This plan starts with those two problems.
Everyday service
Hāʻena, Hanalei, Princeville, and Kīlauea. Today, calls from Princeville west toward Keʻē already fail. The colored areas are the towns, not a promise of bars in every house, and this is not Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile. A phone uses the new signal after it is set up for this network.
After: towns the new phone radios are aimed atAfter: the four towns that would get a phone signal
Teal marks the four towns. Each town hub gets one BLiNQ radio covering about 180° of that town. A phone shows this network after it installs the profile. The shade is the town, not a measured signal contour, and it is not Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile.Teal marks the four towns. A phone uses this signal after it is set up for this network. The color is the town, not a measured footprint, and it is not Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile.
After: the four North Shore towns.The four towns. To build $375,829. Each year $80,419.
Fill the gaps adds smaller solar spots in the holes those town sites leave. A walk of the roads would add or drop some of them. The price below follows Before, After, and that switch.
Lost connections
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. Kauai Internet does not run 911, county radio, or those stations.
1
A short message nearby
When the phone network is down, a person near a community site can still send a short note to someone else on this network. It is a message, not a normal phone call.
2
A note at the community site
Roads, water, food, and whether a shelter is open stay posted at the site, so people are not waiting on a radio station or a webpage that has gone quiet.
3
The site stays on for three days
Each site carries its own solar and batteries. If the power company is out, the site keeps going for at least three days. A generator is there for longer outages.
What this does not do
A Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile call can still fail when their towers lose power. The internet off the island can fail too. A house tucked behind a ridge may still have no signal until a later gap is filled. Call 911 when you can, and sign up for county Everbridge alerts. This network is the local message and the community note for the hours those usual paths are gone.
Where
The price follows the switches. Whole island adds the east side, Līhuʻe, the south shore, and the west side: the same kind of community site in each of those towns. Not the empty mountains.
North Shore pilot onlyNorth Shore first
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 line is the link from one community site to the next, not a blanket of phone signal. The color is the town, not a measured coverage map, and no site has a permit 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.
Cost
To build
$375,829
New equipment, solar and batteries, shipping, and the people to install the four town sites. Bought new. Nothing already on a shelf is subtracted.
Each year
$80,419
People on call, one week of storm work, and the fees that keep the phone signal legal to turn on. The smaller solar spots and the other coastal towns are not in either number until those switches are on.
Turn on Fill the gaps and this becomes $527,087 to build and $106,723 a year. Turn on Whole island and this becomes $1,086,901 to build and $177,581 a year. Switch to Technical for the part-by-part budget. It follows the same switches.
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.