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Hawaiian Telcom

Hawaiian Telcom, Inc., is the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) or dominant local telephone company, serving the state of Hawaii. In 2005, Hawaiian Telcom Holdco, Inc., was formed by The Carlyle Group, following its purchase of the Hawaiian Telcom Inc. assets of Verizon Communications.[1] On July 2, 2018, Cincinnati Bell purchased Hawaiian Telcom Holdco, Inc. for $650 Million,[2]

Company type

1883 (1883)

Su Shin, President

GTE (1967–2000)
Verizon (2000–2005)
The Carlyle Group (2005–2010)
Hawaiian Telcom Holdco (2010–2017)
Altafiber (2018–present)

Hawaiian Telcom provides a wide range of consumer, business, wholesale communications and technology services. Service offerings include local phone, long-distance, Internet services (DSL and fiber optic), and television service;[3] along with wireless services such as a mobile virtual network operator using leased capacity provided by Sprint and Verizon Wireless's CDMA networks on the consumer side. Hawaii operations of Verizon Wireless were not included in the 2004 sale to The Carlyle Group, and Verizon Wireless continues to operate in Hawaii as before the divestiture. Among the company's business offerings are a full range of Internet Protocol services (IP), including Ethernet, high-bandwidth data services, managed services and cloud-based services.[4]

History[edit]

Early history[edit]

Hawaiian Telcom was founded in 1883[5] as the Mutual Telephone Company, chartered under the Kingdom of Hawaii. Herman A. Widemann was a co-founder and the President.[6][7][8] The original owner was Archibald Scott Cleghorn, father of Princess Ka'iulani.[1] It was the second telephone company chartered in Hawaii, after the Hawaiian Bell Telephone Company in 1880.[9] The Hawaiian Bell Telephone Company was also founded by Herman A. Widemann.[10] Mutual took over Hawaiian Bell in 1894.[1]


With the acquisition of the phone service of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company on the island of Lanaʻi, Mutual owned the phone system of the Hawaiian islands. Mutual changed its name to Hawaiian Telephone Company in 1954, with J Ballard Atherton as company president.[11] [1]


In 1967 Connecticut-based GTE Corp. acquired Hawaiian Telephone and renamed it GTE Hawaiian Tel. After the 2000 merger of GTE with New York-based Bell Atlantic, forming Verizon Communications, GTE Hawaiian Tel became Verizon Hawaii.[1]

List of United States telephone companies