Hawaiian Telcom officials said the company is receiving strong customer demand on Oahu for its recently launched Internet television service, which it hopes to have in 80,000 households within five years.

The state’s largest telephone company, which launched the TV service in July, has been quietly building a subscriber base that totaled 1,600 on Oahu by the end of 2011.

When the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs approved Hawaiian Telcom’s cable TV license in June, it noted that the service would provide consumers more choices in a cable market dominated by Oceanic Time Warner.

Hawaiian Telcom crews have been installing fiber-optic cables across Oahu to provide the bandwidth needed to deliver the TV service. By the end of 2011,27,400 households were "enabled" to receive the service, the company said in its quarterly earnings report released Thursday.

Of the homes enabled, 1,600, or 6 percent of the total, were receiving the service, paying an average monthly subscription price of $70, according to the company.

"We are excited about expanding this service to other parts of Oahu in 2012 and increasing our share of the significant TV and entertainment market opportunity," Eric Yeaman, Hawaiian Telcom president and chief executive officer, said in a news release.

Hawaiian Telcom has not undertaken a marketing campaign to promote the TV service, instead opting to individually approach its existing customers who have sufficient bandwidth to support the service.

In a conference call with analysts, Yeaman said that the company hopes to have an additional 50,000 homes enabled for its TV service by the end of 2012, with the goal of enabling 240,000 households over the next five years.

The company’s target penetration is 30 percent, which translates into about 80,000 actual subscribers, Yeaman told analysts.

He also noted that Oceanic Time Warner has responded by increasing its marketing efforts, including offering a discount to subscribers who bundle TV, broadband Internet and cable telephone service in a "triple play" package.

"They continue to maintain a pretty loud voice in the marketplace in terms of the marketing, which has focused on their triple play," Yeaman said.

Yeaman also addressed the company’s labor dispute with its unionized workers represented by IBEW Local 1357. The union is pursuing unfair labor practice charges against Hawaiian Telcom related to the company’s decision to unilaterally implement terms of a contract offer that union members rejected in December.

Yeaman said the National Labor Relations Board has not yet scheduled a hearing on the union’s complaint.

"I think the key point that I would make here … is that we’re continuing discussions with the union and hope that we can reach a resolution outside of that process, because at the end of the day, both the union and the company don’t believe resolution in the NLRB process is in the best interest of the company," he said.

Also Thursday, Hawaiian Telcom reported its fourth consecutive quarter of profitability since emerging from bankruptcy last fall, boosting its full-year net earnings to $26.2 million in 2011.

Revenue in the October-through-December quarter totaled $98.9 million, down slightly from $100.1 million in the same three-month period a year earlier.

The $1.2 million decline was primarily due to a loss of land lines, although that was partially offset by an increase in equipment sales and growth from high-speed Internet subscriptions and Internet-based business services, the company said.