Hawaiian Telcom said high-speed Internet service was restored yesterday to 25,000 homes and 40 businesses that were affected by outages that started Thursday morning.

Hawaiian Telcom spokeswoman Ann Nishida said Internet service was accidentally cut-off to about 28 percent of high-speed Internet customers during a routine software upgrade aimed at improving network performance. She said the company regretted the incident and apologized to customers.

During the outage customers calling about the problem were told via a recorded message that the company was trying to fix it.

For customers such as Glenna Hoffman of Makaha the outage and lack of information on when the problem would be fixed was frustrating. Hoffman said she was without Internet access for a day.

Hawaiian Telcom has grappled with customer service issues for about six months after an ownership change last year.

Hoffman said she waited 15 minutes on the phone to talk to a Hawaiian Telcom official. She said she was then told to wait 19 more minutes to talk to a technician.

"No one knows what's going on," Hoffman said. "I just can't believe this outfit.

"We had no problems with (prior owner) Verizon. We had no problems before that."

Nishida said it would have been impossible for Hawaiian Telcom to provide individual customers with details on when service would be restored.

Service was restored to some customers Thursday and to all customers by 11 a.m. yesterday, Nishida said.

Hawaiian Telcom yesterday started calling back all customers who called in, she said.

Residential customers will not get a discount on their monthly bill because of the outage, the company said.