A question that repeatedly came up in the House Retirement Committee hearing on the bill to raise the cap on local imnvestment by the Retorement Fund was how ASTCA can meet payments for another $18.2 million loan when it is already struggling financially.
According to information provided by the Acting CEO of ASTCA Falavaoto Sualevai, in addition to meeting operational costs, ASTCA’s loan and lease payments total more than $3.2 million a month:
- O3b Networks – $189.000
- ASH Cable – $152,000
- Rural Utilities Services loan – $80,000 and
- Retirement Fund loan payment – $115,000.
She said ASTCA’s revenues for the last year totaled $16 million but they project that within two years it will be $21 million.
The acting ceo told the hearing ASTCA would need two years to rebuild itself and would be asking for a two year grace period from loan payments.
Regarding the Hawaiki Cable, while capacity is 200 gigabytes, ASTCA is currently using 4 gigabytes and Sualevai said they anticipate usage to reach 10 Gigabytes within a year,
She said the contract with Hawaiki that was negotiated by the former management and board had ASTCA paying $29 million for just 10 gigabytes.
And when they came in they renegotiated the contract for 200 gigabutes for the same price…$29 millioon.
Asked if we need all that capacity, she said that ASTCA is negotiating with another island to sell bandwidth to.
She believed that ASTCA can sell 100 gigabytes to other islands.
Sualevai also revealed that they intend to terminate the contract with O3b and make fuill use of the capacity provided by Hawaiki.
Committee Chairman Vailoata Amituanai asked if the reason why o3b is not providing service is because ASTCA isn’t paying them. Sualevai said that was not the case.
Asked for her position on the bill being discussed, the Acting CEO said she believes in it.
Sualevai, who joined ASTCA last year after serving as Finance Officer for BlueSky for several years said she also took risks when she moved to ASTCA, but she believes that Hawaikiis a good investment for the territory.
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