Is anybody here using the digital tv / internet / phone service through Hawaiian Telcom.  The rep came door to door and said it was now available in our area and had some bundled packages to chose from.  The service is IP based through AT&T U-verse.  It features whole house DVR and each TV will now require a box to access the system.  internet speed of up to 21 Mbps.

I'm thinking of switching but wanted some opinions first.

I switched over from oceanic cable. I got tired of fighting with costumer service. I love Hawaiian tel com. I have DVR for cheaper then what I was paying with oceanic without DVR.

@ibuytoys, what area do you live in? I have been interested in Hawaiian telcom but its not available in my part of Mililani. I did do some research and found horrible reviews about the field service and wait time for technicians to arrive. I hope all of you that use their service never experience poor customer service.

Aloha

im also interested in hearing peoples experiences with hawaiian telcom, ive been waiting for years to try but it hasnt been available to me. my friend told me upper makiki now gets it and upon hearing that i tried typing in my address on their website and it says my area also has it now.

I have been trying to get Hwn Tel internet service for many years. It's always the same answer, "Not available in your area."
I live in the Village Park/ Royal Kunia area which is a pretty big area to have no service. Is anybody at HwnTel listening?

I have Hawaiian Tel TV and DSL service.

TV service is good. The DVR is nice and seems to be less laggy than the Oceanic one. Check though to make sure it has the channels you want to have. 

Channel Lineup here:
http://www.hawaiiantel.com/tv/TV/ChannelGuide/tabid/874/Default.aspx#sthash.WkoqyT9x.dpbs

TV Packages:
http://www.hawaiiantel.com/tv/TV/WhatsIncluded/Overview/tabid/764/Default.aspx#sthash.drKcP1sG.6lolCdEO.dpbs

With the DVR, you can have 2 shows going on at the same time... recording 1 while watching another. Or you can have 2 shows recording at the same time.

I had a problem with the DVR one time and got it working with their phone based customer service (he talked me through resetting the DVR).  We didn't have to get the on-site support technician to come over which we had to schedule to come a couple of days out. If we did not manage to get the DVR fixed over the phone, it would have sucked to have no TV for a couple of days or possibly more.  I was very glad that the DVR kept my settings and recorded shows after the reset was completed. This saved me an hour or two of removing channels that I had no subscription to or had a duplicate HDTV version.

The DSL service is decent to great.  I get about 15Mbps down / 1Mbps up with it but this goes down to about 10Mbps down / 1 Mbps up when you have 2 HD shows going on at the same time.  The DSL modem has a built-in WiFi access point so you don't have to have your own Wireless Access Point (WAP) for your mobile devices / laptops.

During peak hours (when the entire neighborhood is home and doing their regular Internet surfing) and with the DVR service running, the speeds reduce even further sometimes clocking in at 5Mbps down / .75 up.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my HT service. It is a good service for less overall cost compared to Oceanic. 

I'm in Waikele.  There's been utility crews working in the area for awhile now but I figured they were doing maintenance not installing an upgrade.    Cost wise it'll be pretty close to what we're currently paying monthly but the Telcom will give us more features.  I just recently got about $45 knocked off my monthly Oceanic bill by calling them and told them I was thinking of switching to Dish.  This was before Telcom offered us this new service.  I don't know if I want to be the guinea pig for my area though.

Thanks for the replies. I have been waiting for the service to be available to my area. When I checked online, my area was still not available. I was told to call and double check. The customer service rep said I should wait till people come door to door.

My friend says he has no problems at all. HD is clear and internet is good enough for his needs. One of the only reasons I would hold off on the switch from oceanic would be OC16. I enjoy all the sports and local shows.

Hi all.  I just ordered the HawTel package for $96, here in Kailua.  Got the invite in my mailbox.
  Preinstaller came Friday, and finished up connecting from the street to my home Saturday a.m. 
Looking forward to seeing completion Tuesday.

Forgot to mention that I have been a longtime coustomer of Oceanic.  Problem was, they advised that my present bill of $110 per month was going up to $125 because of increases in TV, Internet, and DVR.  I called and asked if they were familiar with HawTel's promo.  She advised they were not.  I told them what I was getting for $96, + $4.95 for HD, for 1 dvr and 3 setop boxes, and she advised that would then cost me $175, to match.
No brainer...hello Hawtel.  Got my finger crossed. 
X wife advised they are happy with the package they got in September 2013, although it took them 2 days to get it working right. 
Neighbor just uses if for internet.  Boosted from 3 mbps to 50 mbps.
I should be getting 100 mbps.  We'll see come this Tuesday.

Re. Internet service,

I am currently in a trial period of Telco 20 mbit service.
I am not impressed.
I frequently do speed tests and many times I only see 4 or 5 mbit.
I think I will stick with Oceanic.
Their customer service was poor, so to make up for the poor service they gave me 2 months free internet trial.

my landlords  switched to Hawaii telecom from oceanic. After a couple of day of installing new wire and such it worked pretty good. I was getting up to 30 mbps down and 3 mbps up. Then for the next two weeks it would slow down to the point where I couldn't even measure it (used speed test.com). Then it started working great again but between 15-20 down and 2 up, but never less never more. Think it was from them still installing it around the neighborhood. liked it, also got dvr and hd with it. Other than the initial hiccup, I liked it. This was also in Kailua.

On Hawaiian Tel, the Internet speeds go down when you have a HD program showing or recording.

On Hawaiian Tel, the Internet speeds go down when you have a HD program showing or recording.

DSL speeds also take a dump during peak hours, usually from when people get home until they go to bed. It's about shared bandwidth and line capacity/network capability for an area.

Dsl speeds do slow down at times, but they have a lot of different packages. We don't have tv service but got Amazon Prime instead because I like movies on demand more, and now they are going to have a contract with HBO it's a no-brainer

For a month or so, I had both HawaiianTel and Oceanic cable in my house.  Extremely similar plans and prices.  For my neighborhood (Kaikuki) at the time, Oceanic kicked HawaiianTel's ass.  Oceanic consistently delivered between 85% - 200% of the bandwidth I was paying for, while HawaiianTel consistendly delivered <40%.  I called their tech support.  After three different phone sessions, each of which failed to resolve the issue, they said "Ok, we will just leave your service request open."  No promise to resolve it, no offer to send a technician.

Since then, HawaiianTel has put new fiber optics in my 'hood, and tried to recruit me on that basis.  Still, they are not offering anything Oceanic isn't, and they pissed me off with their lack of service.

I understand that the fiber service can do 100-500mbps download speeds. Check with HT for details.

The issue that concerns me now with Oceanic is the ongoing merger & acquisitions talk with Comcast.  Comcast isn't known as the 2nd most hated company for nothing.  Imagine having your Internet downloads capped at 25GB per month.  A few episodes on Netflix then you max out your cap.

A friend of mine in Manoa just upgraded to the Hawaiian Tel Internet / TV package.

100 Mbps download / almost 20Mbps upload!!!!!!!! 

That speed is amazing!!!!  Hawaii has finally upgraded it's Internet service for consumers!

ive had it for a few weeks now and its...meh. probably gonna keep it but not perfect. im afraid of what the speeds will be like after my trial speed upgrade goes back down to 21mbps.

download speeds drop to as low as 5mb  and ive gotten as high as 56mb. ( i have the 50mb package)  i get very consistent 10mb uploads though. weird.  i noticed speedtest.net has the fastest speeds because they have hawaii based servers to ping off of. when i use other sites my speeds are all over the place during different times of day.

i love their cable tv though. changing channels and doing any command reacts faster than oceanic and doesnt get all choppy and digitalized. i also prefer their dvr and the electronics setup.  i think it should be noted that their dsl modems and cable boxes seem to be of high quality. everything made by cisco. i had to get a new surfboard modem thru oceanic nearly every year. its pretty sweet how i can unplug a cable box and move it around the house(as long as i have a stationary primary box setup) basically as long as you have two outlets for tv and cable box u can watch anywhere in the house, even in the garage or yard.

Hi Jaynick, the 50mb is still on the old phone copper wire and not the fiber cable. Interesting to see how the fiber service holds up as more people are put on it.