It looks like Oceanic Time Warner’s utter disregard of these previous FCC fines (here, and here) has caused the total amount of these fines
to snowball, according to this Honolulu Star Bulletin article.
Oceanic originally was fined a paltry $7,500 for failing to notify the DCCA-CATV division within 30 days that they were going to introduce switched digital video here back on August 22,2008. Oceanic was subsequently fined (here, and here) an additional $40,000 on October 15, 2008 for reducing the amount of channels available to cable card users after the introduction of switched digital video to both the Kauai and central Oahu cable systems.
Fast forward to January 21,2009. The FCC has proceeded to give notice to Oceanic Time Warner that they will be seeking compensation for these previous fines that Oceanic disregarded (here,here, and here). The FCC has also given Oceanic notice that it will be fining them an additional $75,000 for disregarding these previous fines (here,here,and here).
It looks like the FCC still hasn’t addressed Hawaiian Telcom’s request for Universal Service Fund support.I strongly feel that if Sandwich Isles Communications is eligible for USF support, Hawaiian Telcom should be eligible also. Hawaiian Telcom faces exactly the same challenges as SIC has faced in providing service here. However the big difference is the fact SIC is using taxpayer dollars to build an all fiber-optic telephone network.On the other hand Hawaiian Telcom is hamstrung with an largely archaic copper loop based network. Thus in the future SIC will be able to offer cutting edge services to their customers while HawTel will not.
Lastly, it looks the unbudgeted costs of the Hawaii Superferry service continue to rise.If hind sight was 20/20 these costs would’ve been much less if the State did their due diligence (e.g a EIS) before the Hawaii Superferry started service.
