Hawaiian Telcom spokeswoman Ann Nishida said Internet service was accidentally cut off to about 28 percent of high-speed Internet customers during a routine software upgrade early yesterday morning. The company regrets the incident and apologizes to customers, Nishida said.

During the outage customers calling about the problem were told via a recorded message that the company was trying to fix it.

For customers such as Glenna Hoffman of Makaha the outage and lack of information on when the problem would be fixed was frustrating. Hoffman said she was without Internet access for more than a day.

Hawaiian Telcom has grappled with customer service issues for about six months following a change in ownership last year.

Hoffman said she waited 15 minutes on the phone to talk to a Hawaiian Telcom official. She said she was then told to wait 19 more minutes to talk to a technician.

"No one knows what's going on," Hoffman said. "I just can't believe this outfit."

"We had no problems with (prior owner) Verizon. We had no problems before that."

Nishida said it would have been impossible for Hawaiian Telcom to provide individual customers with details such as when Internet service would be restored.

Nishida said residential customers will not get a discount on their monthly bill due to the outage.