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One of Hawaii’s major internet service providers, Hawaiian Telcom, plans to offer higher upload speeds starting Monday.
The company said its basic service that can be had for $34.95 a month will be improved to 100 from 20 megabits per second for uploads. Download speed for the same service is unchanged at 100 Mbps.
Hawaiian Telcom said consumers are needing more bandwidth as they upload more content like videos to the internet, so they are introducing symmetrical upload and download speeds, including one other at 300 Mbps.
Currently the fastest upload speed offered by Hawaiian Telcom is 100 Mbps paired with a 1 gigabit-per-second download speed. That service’s upload speed will jump to 300 Mbps.
The high-speed service is available only in areas with fiber-optic connections.
Long-term mortgage rate dips to 4.55%
WASHINGTON >> The key long-term U.S. mortgage rate declined this week, after a steady rise for most of April that pushed the rate to its highest level in more than four years.
With the spring buying season underway, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages slipped to 4.55 percent from 4.58 percent last week. By contrast, the benchmark rate averaged 4.02 percent a year ago.
The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate loans ticked up to 4.03 percent from 4.02 percent last week.
Despite higher borrowing costs and home prices, demand for home purchases has grown in the spring buying season as the economic outlook has continued to improve and bolstered consumer confidence.
First-time homebuyers accounted for 46 percent of mortgage loans taken out from January through April, up from 43 percent in the first four months of last year, according to Freddie Mac’s data.
Berkshire buys 75M additional Apple shares
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought an additional 75 million shares of Apple Inc., bolstering its stake and backing the iPhone maker’s ability to generate profits, CNBC reported, citing Chairman Warren Buffett.
The stock purchase adds to the almost 170 million shares that Berkshire Hathaway already owns and would see it overtake State Street Corp. to become Apple’s third-largest investor, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company was already Buffett’s biggest shareholding.
ON THE MOVE
The Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce has announced that Wayne Ishihara is the organization’s president and chief executive officer. As president as well as CEO, Ishihara will focus on strengthening Japan and U.S.-Hawaii relations and also will lead HJCC to manage its strategic plan, which was adopted by the board of directors in 2016.
Central Pacific Bank has announced that Lisa Tellio is the bank’s new personal trust officer. Prior to joining CPB, Tellio served as an associate attorney in the Trusts and Estates department of Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel.
Hilton Hawaii has named Linh To-Nguyen regional senior sales manager — leisure market Hawaii, previously senior sales manager at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. She joined Hilton in 2003 as an administrative assistant at Hilton Hawaiian Village, serving in numerous positions including sales account executive and sales manager.
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