Before there was the ugly Verizon Fairpoint kerfuffle, there was Hawaii Telcom, who, like Fairpoint, bit off more they could chew when the acquired DSL and landline networks Verizon didn't feel were worth upgrading. Like Fairpoint, when Verizon divested those networks in Hawaii, Hawaii Telcom struggled under the load and their executives repeatedly issued bubbly statements insisting that everything was fine. Unlike Fairpoint (for now), Hawaii Telcom filed for bankruptcy last December -- but according to the Honolulu Advertiser it now appears they have a buyer. Local telecommunications company Sandwich Isles Communications says it wants to purchase Hawaiian Telcom for $400 million and says they'll keep 1,400 workers at existing wages -- with the exception of high-level executives.

Verizon has been offloading less profitable rural and smaller markets, most recently selling all Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont DSL and landline networks to Fairpoint. But before that, Verizon offloaded their Hawaii networks to a group to the Carlyle Group, who bought the network for $1.6 billion and created a new carrier named Hawaii Telcom to run it.

Hawaiian Telcom has held its own, posing a competitive threat to bigger companies like Time Warner in its little section of the world. However the company is struggling to remain in business with problems plaguing it from multiple angles.