We have investigated the influence of electron–phonon (e–p) interaction and hydrogenic donor impurity simultaneously on energy difference, binding energy, the linear, nonlinear and total refractive index changes and absorption coefficients of a hexagonal-shaped quantum wire. For this goal, we have used finite-elementmethod (FEM), a compact density matrix approach and an iterative procedure. It is deduced that energy difference and binding energy decrease by changing the impurity position with and without e–p interaction. The dipole matrix elements have complex behaviours in the presence of impurity with and without e–p interaction. The refractive index changes and absorption coefficients increase and shift towards lower energies by enhancing $a_1$ with central impurity. In the presence of central impurity, the absorption coefficients and refractive index changes enhance and shift toward higher energies when e–p interaction is considered.