Kokua Line

By Gregg K. Kakesako

Tuesday, April 1, 1997

Heavy usage of Internet
tying up phone circuits

I live in Kaneohe and belong to a local Internet provider, and recently I couldn't dial in and kept getting fast busy signals. The company said that the fast busy signals or "all circuits are busy" message indicates a problem with GTE Hawaiian Tel and not with the Internet company. The company says that GTE has acknowledged that customers calling in from Kaneohe are having problems because there aren't enough circuits there. Is this true?

Not really, says Cal Tadaki, GTE/Hawaiian Tel spokesman. He says there are adequate circuits in the Kaneohe area, and normally there are enough circuits for the busiest time of the day. "What we have noticed," Tadaki said, "is that last week during spring break and during the Christmas period when there were more students home from school, there were heavier demands on the phone system. This could have meant that there were more people trying to access the Internet."

The problem, Tadaki said, is that many people now log in and tie up the line for several hours because they are afraid that they might not be able to call in again. "A normal phone call usually takes only three or four minutes, but now we have people who are tying up the phone lines for several hours on the Internet."

Tadaki said the fast busy signal tells the phone company that there either may be cable problems or that more circuits are needed. At that point the phone company tries to remedy the problem by assigning more circuits to the trouble area.

He also said the heavy rains last week also might have caused cable problems.