Internet access companies whose customers have had trouble in recent weeks going online are blaming GTE Hawaiian Tel.

But the phone company says a good part of the problem was beyond GTE's control and involved unprecedented spikes in Internet usage on Oahu -- spikes that at times blocked people from making regular phone calls.

Whatever the cause, GTE has decided to increase the capacity of its phone network so it can handle peak demand similar to the recent surge in late March plus an extra 50 percent.

Once that added capacity is in place, probably within weeks, the immediate problem of repeated busy signals should be resolved while GTE works on a long-term solution to deal with the explosive growth in Internet usage, GTE spokesman Daniel Smith said.

Yesterday's finger-pointing, which was triggered when Internet provider LavaNet Inc. scheduled a news conference for this morning, was only the most recent episode in trying to pinpoint blame for problems related to Internet access. In the past, everyone from long-distance carriers to the Internet providers have pointed fingers at each other, confusing customers.

Partly because of past access problems, Hawaii's Internet companies have invested big bucks in recent months to install additional phone lines, modems and other equipment to boost capacity.

But they said Hawaiian Tel hasn't been able to keep up -- and then blames the Internet providers or their customers when problems arise, the providers say.

"What we get upset with is when they (GTE) go out and bad-mouth us and we're not the problem," said John Strom, chief technical officer of Pacific Information Exchange. "They're the 900-pound gorilla, and they're slipping on their own bananas."

GTE acknowledged in a letter to LavaNet that a GTE computer programming error contributed to the late March problem. But that error only compounded a problem that already existed because so many people were trying to go online at the same time, Smith said.

The crunch occurred even though GTE had increased the capacity of its system earlier this year following a similar congestion problem in late December.

After students on Christmas break pushed Internet usage in Hawaii up roughly tenfold, GTE installed additional trunk lines so the network could handle that kind of demand plus 30 percent more, GTE said.

The late March surge was up about 25 percent over the Christmas peak, GTE said.

Clifton Royston, LavaNet president, said his company since mid-March recorded more than 3,000 instances of customers getting repeated busy signals -- all due to GTE's insufficient capacity or the programming error.

Yet GTE wouldn't acknowledge that it was even partly to blame until LavaNet presented the utility with near uncontrovertable data, he said.

And even as Internet providers have to suffer the consequences of GTE's insufficient network capacity, GTE is promoting its own Internet access service to Hawaii residents, Royston said. "It's like they're talking out of both sides of their mouth," he said.

GTE's Smith said the long-term solution to the congestion problem likely will involve developing a secondary network that will more efficiently handle data transmissions like those made via the Internet. No time frame has been set for the development of that network.