Wow. Another of those “Your tax dollars at work” stories, this time the beneficiaries are three phone companies serving a Hawaiian land trust.
Apparently, by leveraging some provisions within the USF, Sandwich Isles Communications, Nextel, and Mobi are all collecting $765 per month, per customer for extending their wireless services to the Hawaiian Homelands.
What are the Hawaiian Homelands? Here’s Wikipedia’s take:
In 1921, the federal government of the United States set aside as Hawaiian Homelands approximately 200,000 acres (809 km²) in the Territory of Hawaii as a land trust for homesteading by Native Hawaiians. The law mandating this, passed by the U.S. Congress on July 9, 1921, was called the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) and, with amendments, is still in effect today. The avowed purpose of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was to rehabilitate Native Hawaiians, particularly in returning them to the land in order to enable the maintenance traditional ties to the land.
The main thrust of the story is this: “By September, the three companies will have received a combined $132 million in subsidies for servicing less than 3,500 residences.”
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