A plan to offer free corded telephones to nearly 350,000 Hawaiian Telcom customers has been pushed back from January until May.

Hawai'i's major phone company planned to send out coupons redeemable for one free phone about 45 days after the Dec. 3 sale of its directories publishing business. The state Public Utilities Commission approved the $435 million sale on the condition that Hawaiian Telcom provide the coupons.

However, the coupons likely won't go out to customers until May or June because the company apparently has had difficulty acquiring the large volume of phones in a timely manner.

"It's such a huge order the (phone) manufacturer was saying 'Whoa, we don't even have that many phones,' " said Hawaiian Telcom spokesman Ron Mizutani. "It's definitely happening still, but the lead time to develop these phones and to make make them ... is causing this delay.

"We don't want to send the coupons out too early and it will be a problem because the phones are not here."

The company did not order 350,000 phones because it's likely some customers won't redeem the coupons. Hawaiian Telcom ordered 96,000 corded slimline-type phones on Dec. 12, according to a letter from the company to the PUC sent last week. The phones, which don't require a separate electricity source, will be delivered in several shipments through June. Coupons for the phones will be delivered with customer bills over a two-month period.

The coupons will be redeemable at Hawaiian Telcom stores and other locations.

The sale of the directory publishing business, which included both the Yellow Pages and White Pages, to Englewood, Colo.-based Local Insight Media LP was aimed at reducing $1.38 billion in long-term debt created when the phone company was sold from Verizon Communications Inc. to The Carlyle Group in 2005.

The reduced debt is expected increase the company's financial flexibility while moving Hawaiian Telcom closer to a PUC-mandated debt-to-equity ratio. When that ratio is reached, dividend payments to the phone company's investors can begin.

Just how much the free phone coupon will cost Hawaiian Telcom was not disclosed. However, the company has offered a corded phone for sale as low as $5.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.