Japanese company pays $25M for satellite link to Hawaii
A SMALL Hawaii satellite communication company will make access to the Internet easier in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan starting June 1.
Hawaii-Pacific Teleport has leased a transponder on the JCSAT-5a satellite launched last week, resulting in a so-called spot beam on Hawaii.
"A spot beam means when they built the satellite ... they went to all the expense of shaping a beam on the satellite so it can touch Hawaii, meaning we can send traffic from Hawaii to those countries," said Vince Waterson, vice president of business development for Hawaii-Pacific Teleport.
Of the $250 million cost of building the satellite, the Hawaii spot beam cost $25 million, he said.
"It's a big feather in our cap," that JSAT, a Japan-based satellite company "equivalent to DirecTV," would spend that amount of money in order to do business with them, Waterson said.
The company, with its teleport in Kapolei and corporate offices in Novato, Calif., will add one or two people to its eight-member staff, he said.
Enhanced potato-ness
Now you needn't get up from the couch to see who's calling before deciding whether to answer.
Oceanic Time Warner Cable's Caller ID on TV will roll out across Oahu and Kauai between Wednesday and Friday.
Only Oceanic digital phone service customers with digital cable will see the caller information appear in the upper left corner of the screen.
"The employees already have it; they were our beta-testers," said Alan Pollock, vice president of marketing.
"So you come home ... you turn on the TV and press the 'A' button (on the remote) and you'll get a history of the last ten people that called you," he said.
The call log displays names, numbers, dates, times and number of times they called.
Most of Oceanic's 16,000 digital telephone customers also have digital cable service and Roadrunner and pay $39.95 for the phone service.
Separately, Pollock said there are about 40,000 Oceanic customers who still have analog set-top boxes, "and we're happy to exchange them" for digital boxes, he said.
Those customers would still receive basic service, "but they can get a better box and better features at no extra charge."
Pleasant partnership
Travel company
Pleasant Holidays has teamed up with one of the largest online honeymoon registries to give newlyweds happy send-offs into wedded bliss -- though the bliss part is pretty much up to the newlyweds.
TheBigDay.com offers marrying couples an online registry for dream honeymoons to several destinations and Hawaii is among the top choices.
TheBigDay.com powers the registry pages on the Pleasant Holidays Web site, where couples can sign up for a honeymoon in Hawaii or another Pleasant destination, including Mexico, the South Pacific and Asia.
Couples can also register for spa services, activities, attractions and romantic dinners, instead of china, crystal, or the latest kitchen gadget with hot-and-cold-folding-doors.
The average couple receives more than $2,000 in gifts with a registry at TheBigDay.com, while the average honeymoon costs around $3,500.
However, it's not just about collecting money for the couple, said Michael Cottam, a co-founder of TheBigDay.com.
"It's coming up with gifts that have real meaning for the couple and the giver."
If someone purchases a snorkeling adventure for the couple for $100, there will be a picture of that event, a memory made, he said.
That picture can be posted on the couple's registry page to share with the giver.
Conversely, "you don't take a picture of $100."
Pleasant Holidays chose TheBigDay.com because of its quality control, said Ken Phillips, staff vice president of corporate communications.
"The travel agents they use to talk to the customers have to be very responsive and really meet the needs of the customers."
Results are monitored through sales activity and customer satisfaction feedback.
"It was very key for us to make sure that any of our customers involved would have the very best of care."