For FlexNet customers, the change means they'll pay PixiNet's lower base rate, $20 a month for unlimited Internet access, compared with FlexNet's monthly base rate of $24.95, said John Strom, president of Pacific Information Exchange.

FlexNet subscribers will keep their current e-mail "aloha.com" address. But as the change phases in over the next month, FlexNet customers will be notified of a new dial-up access telephone number, Strom said today.

They will then connect to his company's PixiNet service instead of FlexNet and will be PixiNet customers, he said.

Strom would not disclose how much his company paid for FlexNet's customer base or how many FlexNet customers there are.

"What you can say is, it's in keeping with our capacity," he said. "We have capacity for over 10,000 customers." The combination with FlexNet brings PixiNet's customer base to somewhere over 6,000, Strom said.

Del Wong, founder and president of FlexNet, could not be reached for comment. However, in a notice to subscribers yesterday he said the transition should be seamless.

Strom said that Wong wanted to expand into the business of providing high-speed Internet-access for businesses and had to choose between that or more expansion in the personal dial-up business. Either way, Wong needed capital for expansion, Strom said.

FlexNet was Hawaii's first Internet service provider when it began offering public access in July 1994. PixiNet came along a few weeks later, Strom said.

"We go back a long way," he said. FlexNet and PixiNet have cooperated from the start, he said.