Last week's islandwide blackout has disrupted television and phone service for at least 2,000 Oceanic Time Warner Cable customers on Oahu.

A major electrical surge to Oahu households when power resumed Saturday damaged thousands of cable boxes, digital converters and digital video recorders that were not plugged into surge protectors in some “;isolated pockets”; of the island, according to Alan Pollock, Oceanic vice president of marketing.

This means that residents looking forward to watching New Year's Day college football bowl games on their high-definition television sets might be out of luck.

“;If you don't have a surge protector, there's a good chance it is damaged,”; he said. “;The amount of people affected is everyone who was in the blackout.”;

Oceanic customers with cable boxes or DVRs number more than 216,000 statewide, with 80 percent of them on Oahu.

“;What's a hassle for me with all of this is the Internet because all of my work is done online,”; said Aiea resident L.P. Neenz Faleafine, whose Oceanic Internet service has been intermittent since the blackout. “;The last time we had heavy rains and the electricity went out, I had to go to Waikiki to finally get some Internet connection.”;

Oceanic does not know how many people did not use a surge protector or did not unplug their cable boxes or DVRs, which were essentially fried when the power resumed. The company plans to submit claims for damaged equipment with Hawaiian Electric Co., Pollock said.

During a power failure, customers always should unplug electrical devices, even if it is plugged into a surge protector, he said. Customers also should try to reboot their devices.

Meanwhile, about 1,500 Hawaiian Telcom customers lost service for a couple of hours beginning on Friday, but service was restored as early as Saturday afternoon, according to spokeswoman Ann Nishida.

Oceanic has exchanged more than 1,000 cable boxes and is completely out of digital converters. It is looking to ship more digital converters into the islands, though a time frame has not been determined.

The company is hoping to exchange and replace another 1,000 damaged cable boxes as early as today.