Hawaiian Telcom is deceptive when it comes to their internet services. We did a triple play: landline, basic TV, and 500 Mbps internet. We had been longtime landline customers prior to signing up for the triple play. Upon signing up, I was informed that I would be having 1 Gbps of fiber optic internet service for my first year at no extra charge.Hawaiian Telcom uses IPTV technology for their TV service. This means the set-top box needed to be connected to an IPTV-compatible router via ethernet. Because we bundled with TV, we were coerced into renting their godawful Zyxel gateway. I had been under the impression that the Zyxel gateway was a modem-router combo because that is what I'm used to seeing with cable. I barely topped at 580 Mbps during the one year of "1 Gbps" service. Hawaiian Telcom didn't do anything about it. We had been wasting $9.99 per month renting that crap gateway. I later realized that the optical network terminal (ONT) takes the place of the modem when it comes to fiber optic.I was getting 200-350 Mbps in speeds during the majority of the time.After the one year period on "1 Gbps," I was downgraded to the 500 Mbps service. Shortly before recently switching to Spectrum, I purchased an ASUS RT-AXE7800 Wi-Fi 6E router, which is IPTV compatible. I enabled multicast forwarding in the IPTV settings, and I was able to get the set-top box working. I was getting much faster speeds with this router and realized then that the Zyxel gateway had been bottlenecking the gigabit speeds that I'm supposedly paying for!!! Seriously?!?!?!Not to mention, Hawaiian Telcom uses old-generation TV technology and doesn't have direct live streaming options like Spectrum does. Their bottlenecking gateway and subprime TV service had prompted me to switch back to Spectrum. I'm currently subscribed to Spectrum Internet Ultra, which delivers 500 Mbps in download and 20 Mbps in upload speeds. I'm tempted to upgrade to gigabit for an additional $30 per month with them because I want to make up for not being able to enjoy gigabit with Hawaiian Telcom all thanks to their crap equipment!!! Also, Spectrum no longer requires TV customers to rent a set-top box as long as they have Spectrum Internet service. So my household has been streaming Spectrum TV on mobile devices, smart TVs, and Roku sticks since. My house has way less clutter now compared to when we had Hawaiian Telcom's lackluster equipment taking up our space in the house previously.The crap that Hawaiian Telcom put me through was pathetic. I've been wanting to try gigabit speeds. I've been overpaying for lackluster performance and reliability the whole time!!!Here's another note - Hawaiian Telcom is not truly a local business, despite its name. Hawaiian Telcom was owned by Cincinnati Bell during the time I signed up for their triple play service, and as of 2023, they're owned by an Australian-based infrastructure investment firm. Not local at all! At least Spectrum is American and that their customer service is 100% U.S.-based!
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Hawaiian Telcom, Inc., is the incumbent local exchange carrier or dominant local telephone company, serving the state of Hawaii.