Hawaiian Telcom expects to roll out a far faster Internet service by the end of next month as the phone company attempts to retain existing customers and win new ones. The company also has started offering broadband Internet as a stand-alone service that no longer requires an accompanying phone line account.

The moves come amid intense competition from cable, Internet and wireless companies that are tapping Hawaiian Telcom's phone and Internet customer base. Hawai'i's residential Internet market is currently dominated by Oceanic Time Warner Cable, followed by Hawaiian Telcom, then various resellers and wireless service providers.

Oceanic carved out the largest share of the Internet market in part by offering the highest speeds — 5 megabits per second. Now Hawaiian Telcom is looking to trump Oceanic's Road Runner Internet service by offering faster download speeds of 7 megabits to 11 megabits per second coupled with upload speeds of 1 megabit per second. Hawaiian Telcom's current residential service tops out at 3 megabits per second, or 3 million bits of information per second.

"In the third quarter we're going to be turning up the heat on our competition," Hawaiian Telcom Chief Executive Mike Ruley told investors during a conference call this week. "It's truly going to be the fastest, most reliable service in Hawai'i. That has been a phrase coined by the cable company."

Hawaiian Telcom did not release details about the pricing of faster Internet services except that they will be "very competitive" and the services will launch statewide.

In addition to providing faster Internet speeds, the upgrades will form the foundation for future video services, including high-definition TV. Hawaiian Telcom has said it plans to launch Internet technology-based television service in early 2008. That will allow the company to offer wired and wireless phone services, high-speed Internet and video services on one bill.

Bundling is a key part of Hawaiian Telcom and competitor Oceanic Time Warner Cable's strategies. The idea is to sell customers several services, making them less likely to switch to a competitor or "churn."

Kailua, Kona, resident and Hawaiian Telcom Internet customer Aaron Stene said he's looking forward to the new service.

"It's going to be nice when it happens," he said. "I would definitely go with the higher speed. Hopefully with this added competition it's going to force Oceanic to improve" its Internet service.

An Oceanic spokesman was unavailable to comment on how the cable company plans to compete with the faster service. However, in some markets Time Warner already offers a service called Road Runner Turbo, which offers 8 megabit-per-second download speeds coupled with 512 kilobit-per-second upload speeds for an added $9.95 a month. The basic price for Road Runner is $44.95 a month, though rates are lower when bundled with other services.

Hawaiian Telcom's high-speed Internet service is $29.99 a month for customers that also have land-line phone service, and less when bundled with other services.

Starting in late July, Hawaiian Telcom began offering the service at a standalone price of $34.99 a month. Previously the company's broadband Internet service was only available to land-line phone customers. Basic land-line service costs about $30 a month.

"We still believe that land-line service is very important to retain" for reliability and security reasons, said Hawaiian Telcom spokeswoman Ann Nishida. However, there is a place for standalone service in the market, the company said.

The changes at Hawaiian Telcom follow a quarter in which the company lost 1,091, or 1.5 percent, of high-speed Internet subscriber lines. Those losses, which occurred from April through June, were pegged to competitive loses and a large purge of Internet accounts necessitated by past accounting problems.

Future growth in Hawaiian Telcom's broadband business could come at the expense of competitor Oceanic.

"I think the pendulum will swing by taking market share from Oceanic," Ruley said.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.