On April 4, 2023, Leslie Williams, President of SI Wireless LLC (“SI Wireless”); Mignon Clyburn and Ron Jones of MLC Strategies, and the undersigned met with Ramesh Nagarajan and Elizabeth Cuttner, legal advisors for FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel, to discuss issues SI Wireless has encountered with the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (“Reimbursement Program”).
In the meeting, we discussed the delays SI Wireless has encountered with the Reimbursement Program and the related delays it has experienced in receiving reimbursement funds related to numerous and repeated Requests for Information (“RFIs”). SI Wireless noted that the back and forth emails related to the RFIs would be better handled in a telephone call or video conference with the Reimbursement Program Fund Administrator (“Fund Administrator”). SI Wireless has 65 invoices totaling $10,987,850.88 that have been outstanding with the Fund Administrator for over 170 days with the oldest invoices aging past
215 days. Of those 65 invoices, 45 invoices are still awaiting initial review. SI Wireless has submitted a total of 118 invoices requesting over $16 million in reimbursement funds. Of those 118, only 11 have been paid representing about $360,000. SI Wireless’s first payment was disbursed on November 23, 2022 which means it must complete the process by November 23, 2023, a year from the first payment being disbursed.- Moderator's Note
- I'm at a loss to explain how a D.C. law firm would be claiming that
- the FCC is in arrears on payments which total over ten million
- dollars, for "over 170 days."
- Would someone with more info please clear this up? Thanks!
- Bill Horne