The islands will embark on a furious new era of high-speed internet connectivity — free to low-income customers — over the next two years after receiving $115.5 million in federal funds Thursday designed to provide broadband access to rural communities, the neighbor islands and even parts of urban Honolulu.

The disparities between isle residents with and without reliable and affordable high-speed internet were exacerbated during COVID-19 when U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono and U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda saw school-age children in Zippy’s parking lots doing remote schoolwork, they said, in joining the rest of Hawaii’s congressional delegation, Gov. Josh Green and federal officials in making Thursday’s announcement.

Tokuda, who represents rural Oahu and the neighbor islands, plans to tour five islands next week where she will be unable to stream town hall meetings or even have internet access.

“To me, digital equity is a right,” Tokuda said. “For our district … access is not equal.”

COVID-19 also exposed the inability of isle kupuna to access telemedicine technology to receive health care remotely, while untold numbers of Hawaii employees worked from home during the pandemic.

U.S. Rep. Ed Case said that even public-housing projects in his urban Honolulu district lack affordable, high-speed internet.

The federal funding to upgrade Hawaii’s internet technology was pushed by Congress and President Joe Biden as part of a bigger effort to provide low and even free service to 17 million U.S. households.

While the money for Hawaii is aimed at “underrepresented and disadvantaged communities,” Case said, “it is very much an urban issue.”

The federal funds to launch a new era of high-speed, affordable access across the islands must be spent by December 2026, including installing modern, undersea cable simultaneously — or “parallel” — to all islands, said Garret Yoshimi, vice president for information technology and chief information officer for the University of Hawaii, who is helping Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke lead the broadband revolution.

There are more hurdles than easy answers, including getting county, state and federal permits within two years to lay the undersea cables to each island and figuring out exactly which communities have the greatest need.

Even pinpointing how many households, schools, libraries and businesses in need of affordable, high-speed internet connectivity is difficult because Federal Communications Commission estimates of 20,000 to 22,000 island communities seem low.

“We think it’s not entirely correct,” Yoshimi said.

It’s also unclear how many households or businesses are in those communities, Luke told the Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser.

Green started his Hawaii island medical career in Kau, which he called the most remote part of the Big Island.

Across the state, Green estimated, 30% of island communities — or 400,000 residents outside of Oahu’s urban core — lack affordable, high-speed internet access.

He told federal officials on Thursday’s Zoom announcement of the federal funding that “you’re changing lives. … You’re really creating some equality.”

In 2006, Green said, he had to reattach a severed thumb without internet service cut off by an earthquake, making it “impossible” to access orthopedists or advanced care.

Luke and Yoshimi hope to begin construction of a new undersea broadband cable system in 2025, with connectivity to follow a few years later.

Access to high-speed internet service to Hawaii’s 89 public-housing projects could come online even sooner, within 2-1/2 years, Yoshimi said.

The public-housing projects comprise 5,300 to 5,400 units, home to an estimated 13,000 residents.

“They’ll probably come on first,” he said.

Asked which neighbor islands — or individual communities — will follow next, Yoshimi said all of them.

“Our approach is to attack it from across the board,” he said. “We’re not going to do it one at a time.”

CONNECTING

>> To find out whether you’re eligible to free, future high-speed internet access, go to getinternet.gov.

>> To help identify internet communities lacking broadband access, visit bit.ly/427oElA.

>> For more information, visit hawaii.edu/broadband.