Former Hawaiian Telcom Chief Executive Officer Michael Ruley was named CEO of a Chicago-based Internet service company.

Sparkplug Inc. said yesterday that Ruley will oversee the future expansion of the fast-growing wireless broadband provider.

"It's exciting for me to join a company that has all the pieces in place including a great reputation for quality service, a strong team and the backing of an exceptional group of investors and board with a record of building successful companies," Ruley said.

Ruley became Hawaiian Telcom's first CEO in 2005 after Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group bought the local phone company for $1.6 billion.

But he abruptly resigned in February after the company lost tens of millions of dollars, thousands of subscribers and came under investigation by the state Public Utilities Commission for providing poor service.

Ruley earned $875,692 as Hawaiian Telcom's CEO in 2007 but received a $1.2 million severance package this year, which included $20,000 for personal travel, $22,000 for his family's health coverage and reimbursement of up to 6 percent for the real estate broker commission on the sale of his Kahala home.

Sparkplug is a leading fixed wireless broadband service provider with networks in Chicago; Nashville, Tenn.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; and Des Moines, Iowa.

The company was co-founded by former McCaw Cellular executive Bill Malloy, who remains as the company's chairman. Several other former McCaw executives were early backers of the company and serve on its board.

Sparkplug offers a range of high-speed data, voice over IP, and other managed services over its own network to business, education and government customers. The company offers bandwidth options starting at 2 megabits per second to 1 gigabit per second.

Sparkplug also provides high capacity data services and transport to many of the nation's leading telecom providers.