rejusten

Aloha, and mahalo for the first question! (And forgive me for any typos I haven't caught and edited yet, it's just a little shy of 5am here and my coffee hasn't fully kicked-in yet!)

Officially, our unemployment rate here in Hawaiʻi was 13.9% as of June (down from 34% in April), although new numbers for July should come out this week. Looking around to our family and friends, that number would seem to be missing a lot of folks. Stories of entire families being laid off are heartbreaking, and the state has been inexcusably slow to figure things out to get help to the people that need it (although I know that has been true in at least some other states, as well).

We were thankfully able to keep everybody on the team working. We closed our stores and offices back in March when the first stay at home restrictions were imposed, and all of our retail team shifted to working from home to help out with customer care. And although there has been a new surge in cases here on Oʻahu over the past few weeks, everyone on the team has been safe.

We've continued to forgive or extend bill due dates for customers that need help. (The official "Keep Americans Connected" pledge was pretty poorly implemented by other carriers based on what we've heard or seen, sadly, and expired June 30. We've not disconnected anyone since March for non-payment.)

So, yes, we're lucky to have not been impacted the same way as folks in the hospitality and tourism sectors have been. But the economy is so interconnected, we see that pain in our friends and family, and in our customers and their families.

We've long been worried about the economy's dependence on tourism here, and as a company we've worked to promote entrepreneurship (particularly in other fields). I hope, once we begin to see some non-oncoming-train light at the end of this tunnel, that we can really begin to rethink that as a state. Of course, we'll always warmly welcome visitors that love Hawaiʻi, but we've got to figure out some other ways of creating opportunities for folks, too.

On the software side, we decided to go with an open source BSS/OSS platform a little while back to avoid getting stuck with a big monolithic provider that we couldn't escape. (It's one of the reasons wireless and telecom in general tends to struggle with billing, customer care, and the like in our opinion — pretty much everyone uses the same awful software.)

One of the biggest challenges for wireless providers tends to be more getting permission to put in or upgrade a tower, as opposed to the durability of equipment, to be honest. Hawaiʻi isn't unique in that regard — NIMBYism is everywhere, and has been supercharged by the crazy 5G conspiracy theories out there. Everyone wants faster, more reliable wireless service, but nobody wants a wireless tower anywhere near them. It's definitely a tough catch-22.

It's one of the areas where I think Comcast, Charter, Cox, Altice, etc. will probably leapfrog the big carriers to a certain extent, I think. While AT&T and Verizon understand poles in their own legacy ILEC footprints, the cable companies still live that every day and have decent bandwidth strung along them (and, helpfully, electricity right there, too). Pole-mounted small cells can bring network density out way closer to where folks live and work, and that'll be a big deal in a 5G world. It's maybe one of the biggest reasons why I figure Dish (see the other comment on consolidation) and the cable companies might eventually end up working together — if you're going to build a nationwide network, it might not hurt to split the cost with somebody else.

Aloha Mitch! Not quite a softball, but I'll take it. ;)

I think so, at least for a little while. Sprint generally would allow just about anyone with a halfway decent MVNO idea to give it a shot. The other three are nowhere near as willing to do that, for whatever reason you might want to ascribe.

Some of the newer MVNOs are definitely not small, though, so that changes the dynamic a little bit. Comcast, Charter, Cox, etc., and at least for right now Dish (temporarily acting as an MVNO as they build out their own network), have way more to invest/commit than your average MVNO startup.

Every indication is that Dish will be at least as wholesale-friendly as was Sprint, maybe even more so. So even if there is a little bit of a nuclear winter for MVNOs for the next couple of years, I think it won't last forever. (And that was also true after each of the droughts post the big ESPN Mobile/Amp'd/Solavei failures.)

Aloha Robear! We're mostly B2C focussed, but I'd love to still figure out if there's any overlap in some things we might need some help with and your skills. I'm justen dot burdette at mobi pcs dot com. (I know the spam bots are smart enough to piece that back together nowadays, but habits.)

As a data analyst, I'm sure you realize my 100% CEO rating on Glassdoor is from a relatively small sample size. But I do believe in the principle (and not just the meme) that a good manager is a good advocate, defender, and counselor more than a "boss." And so, I try hard to be a good manager. Everyone on the team is empowered to make the right decision, whatever that might be. And we try to make sure silos don't build up, which to me can make a theretofore great place to work much less enjoyable.

Sprint was the only large domestic carrier that allowed itself to be mentioned by name as a network or roaming partner. We do work with others, and if you reach out to us in a one-on-one channel we're allowed to let you know if we'd have coverage in your area (from which you might be able to deduce who we would be roaming on?). It's a silly dance, but the Big 3 don't want folks to capitalize on their brands. It isn't an anomaly that you were able to sign-up, as our agreements with carriers on the mainland don't proscribe "permanent" roaming. Let me know if you run into any issues, though, and I'm happy to help!