Sandwich Isles Slams FCC Mandamus Opposition, Says It's Running Out of Money for Salaries
Sandwich Isles Communications said the FCC used "red herring arguments that fail to rebut" the carrier's mandamus request for urgent court relief ordering agency disbursement of withheld USF subsidies. Government opposition "ignores the facts and exigent circumstances that compelled" SIC's…
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petition "and which the FCC seeks to sweep under the rug," said a company reply (in Pacer) Tuesday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (In re: Sandwich Isles, No. 17-1248). "The FCC seeks to confuse the Court with irrelevancies and fundamentally mischaracterizes" the relief sought, "misrepresents" commission proceedings and "ignores significant facts" on the USF amount at issue. Sandwich Isles said it wants the court to require the FCC to direct the Universal Service Administrative Co. to determine the USF amount the carrier is owed and disburse it within seven days, without which SIC "will run out of money to pay its employees, jeopardizing" telecom service for Hawaiian Home Lands native people. The FCC/DOJ urged the court to dismiss the petition as unwarranted given the commission's "ample" legal discretion to deny USF subsidies "to companies like SIC that engage in fraud, waste or abuse" (see 1801250018).