It is cheaper and faster to communicate with major Asia-Pacific markets from Hawaii than from the mainland, and even cheaper, faster and more reliable than communicating within Asia itself. Hawaii has the greatest telecommunications capacity available for business use of any U.S. state. Currently seven undersea fiber-optic cable systems connect Hawaii to the U.S. mainland and to Asia and the Pacific. There are four under sea fiber-optic cables that connect Hawaii to these and other destinations. There is ample satellite capacity, both for international and domestic transmissions, to complement the terrestrial fiber network.
Satellites also serve an important role as a redundant, or backup system, to fiber-optic cable.
For US or Asian companies doing a great deal of point to multi-point communications between the two continents, it makes economic sense to operate from the Aloha State. Rather, transmissions can be quickly and efficiently routed from Hawaii directly to Asia destination. The geographical advantages of Hawaii's mid-Pacific locale means the latency between Hawaii and Asia is roughly half of what it would from the Mainland to Asia. The upshot is that data communications from Hawaii to Asia is faster, cheaper and better because it's traveling through a shorter pipeline. Although military communications systems are not available for civilian use, Hawaii's position as headquarters for all branches of the military in the Pacific adds a level of hardware presence and personnel expertise in the field not found elsewhere.