Since the Carlyle Group purchased Verizon Hawai'i, it has been a rocky road and downhill economic spiral for the telecommunications company.

Carlyle sued Bearing Point regarding the return of support services, which caused many angry customers. Then they sold the Yellow Pages, which had been a great income producer. At the same time, their wire line service continued a downhill slide.

Without a new income stream, Hawaiian Telcom's problems got worse.

The union workforce that continued to produce under new company leadership worried about its future. Many were concerned about their retirement benefits and decided to leave, which impacted the pension fund. This was compounded with negative return on investment in the pension fund —the pension fund became under funded.

Then on Dec. 1, Hawaiian Telcom filed for bankruptcy, and a few days later it informed its union employees that it would not keep its obligation in the contract regarding the employees' pensions.

In May 2004, during hearings conducted by the Public Utilities Commission regarding Carlyle Group purchase, I testified about comments made by Verizon CEO Ivan Sidenberg before Sen. John McCain's committee on commerce.

Sidenberg said: "Since the (1996 Telecommunications Act), the only way any (telephone) company has made money in the wire line business is by selling itself. That is a 100 percent true statement so no one is making money organically, they're making it because they run the business to a certain point they have to merge with somebody or sell the assets."

The only way Hawaiian Telcom made money at the start was by suing Bearing Point Inc., and selling the Yellow Pages.

On Dec. 12, Eric Yeaman, CEO of Hawaiian Telcom, informed employees that upon its emergence from bankruptcy, the company may be sold to "successful bidders."

Will Hawaiian Telcom go through another cycle again? Will we become part of Oceanic Cablevision, which is more of a programming company and does not understand telecommunications? Will this make a monopoly out of Oceanic Cablevision in the state of Hawai'i?

I believe the only way that Hawaiian Telcom is to survive is by turning it into a cooperative utility, owned by its members (customers) and its profits reinvested into its infrastructure.

President Barack Obama has made it one of his priorities to have high-speed telecommunications. I believe that Hawai'i can be the first state in that nation to provide high-speed telecommunication to homes statewide.

In 2008, at the state Democratic Party Convention, a resolution that I sponsored was passed. It asked all elected Democrats to support FTTH (Fiber To The Home).

I believe the money is available from the federal government and, with the help of Sen. Daniel Inouye, we could become the first state with fiber-optic communications deployed to every home. Such a network will draw new business investments to Hawai'i.

To accomplish this, we must make the move toward a cooperative utility for all of the residents of the state of Hawai'i. Our future depends on it.

George Waialeale is a 39-year veteran of Hawaiian Telcom where he served as IBEW Local Union 1357 Business Manager & Financial Secretary from 1989-1998 and represented the employees collective bargaining unit. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.