Hawaiian Tel files for Bankrupcy

[macuu222]

Better think twice about a land line phone. Hawaiian Tel just filed for chapter 11 protection against creditors.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/articl...10358/1001

[Bullwinkle]

From the story:

Hawaiian Telcom has about $1 billion in debt, which includes $574.5 million in bank loans and about $500 million in bonds. The debt helped finance Washington, D.C.-based The Carlyle Group's $1.6 billion takeover of the local phone company in 2005

just more fall out from the "buble" and "cheap money" economies of the past few years ... Carlyle is about to find out what hawaiian tel is really worth

[Aaron S]

I just blogged about this today

http://tinyurl.com/6x6mra

"Hawaiian Telcom filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today.This is not a surprising turn of events. Especially since they were unable to pay a 26 million dollar interest payment due at the beginning of November.

I really believe that the Hawaii PUC and the Division of Consumer Advocacy failed Hawaii consumers and businesses by approving this purchase by the Carlyle Group in 2005. It left Hawaiian Telcom as a over leveraged company unable to upgrade their network to compete effectively with Oceanic Time Warner Cable and the wireless providers.If that wasn’t enough they had eons of customer service problems.

I chalk up the latter to the Carlyle Group’s lack of experience in running a telephone company and their selection of Bearing Point to build the back office infrastructure. A lot of these concerns were brought up during the public hearings about this purchase. Nonetheless, the Hawaii PUC and the Division of Consumer Advocacy largely ignored these concerns and rubber stamped this acquisition of Hawaiian Telcom by the Carlyle Group.

However hopefully Hawaiian Telcom can emerge from bankruptcy a much stronger company. We definitely need a viable competitor to Oceanic Time Warner Cable."

[Guest]

I finally put em out of business!

I swore a couple years ago that when they screwed me for about 2-3 months on my phone bill that I would put them out of service!

Seriously... they were never the same after acquiring the Verizon accounts here in Hawaii.

I'm glad this company has failed and gone bankrupt.

SCREW HawaiiTelcom!

(To be repeated on every blog I see posting about HawaiiTelcom today!)

-------
My Blog

[Devany]

LOL... this why we are going to try "cell only" service. However, we live in an area with great coverage. I have several friends in Honokaa that depend deeply on their land lines.

www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

Devany Vickery-Davidson
East Bay Potters
www.eastbaypotters.com

[Kapohocat]

We do have a land line/DSL/unlimited long distance for $55/mo through HT. (We get more bang for our buck from HT than from Helco). Cell service is mediocre at best down here.

I hope they get it straightened out since cable isnt down here, and some one told me the wireless from ATT isnt the best down here too.

[loffelkopffl]

i don't think landlines are in danger, lol

the sad thing is when these companies file for chapter 11, alot of vendors get screwed

[DickWilson]

For those considering cell only service. Remember almost no cell towers are on UPS service. Power goes out, cell tower goes out. Not so land lines, The phone company uses generator backup to power their lines. Point in case; the blackout in New York city. Lines around the block to use the few pay phones. Also most area's dont not have Celluar 911 location capability, unlike landlines. IMHO, the monthly cost for a basic land line is money well spent, even with reliable cell service. Just a thought. Also don't forget sunspot storms, no time to really need your cell phone.

dick wilson

[macuu222]

I use cell only service. If power goes out and I need to call someone during that outage...I can use one of my neighbors landlines.