Oceanic Time Warner Cable announced yesterday that 6,000 high-definition TV boxes arrived this week — in time for Christmas and the highly anticipated Sugar Bowl game between Hawai'i and Georgia.

The company had many of the boxes flown in to meet the growing demand for HDTV.

Oceanic will extend business hours tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for O'ahu residents to pick up HD boxes and customers who want to buy them at its Mililani Tech Park customer service center.

"Over 3,000 subscribers on a waiting list since the 1st of December will now get their boxes in time for the game," said Alan Pollock, vice president of marketing at Oceanic Time Warner Cable.

Hawai'i customers who subscribe to HD television will need an HD converter box to view HD Channels; the HD Tier subscription is available for $6.95 per month. Oceanic also offers HD DVRs at an additional charge of $9.95 per month that allows subscribers to record all HD programming. Thirty-one HD channels are available to HD subscribers with more to come early next year.

The boxes became available for pickup starting yesterday at all Oceanic Service Centers and continuing tomorrow at Mililani Tech Park, 200 Akamainui St.

HD boxes will be on reserve for customers who are on the waiting list and the reserved boxes can be picked up at any time. Other customers will be helped on a first-come, first-served basis.

Shipping the HD boxes to Hawai'i was only possible through support from American Fast Freight, DHL Air Cargo, and Pacific Air Cargo, Pollock said.

Oceanic currently delivers its service through a fiber optic/coax network to more than 400,000 households, schools and businesses on O'ahu, Maui, Kaua'i, Moloka'i, Lana'i and the Big Island that include Road Runner high-speed Internet as well as Digital Phone services.

The company has provided cable service for Hawai'i residents since 1969. Oceanic Time Warner Cable is the 13th largest system in the United States.

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