Oceanic Time Warner Cable has been ordered to pay $40,000 in fines and to reimburse certain customers on Oahu and Kauai for implementing switched digital video service last November.

The Federal Communications Commission found that Oceanic's implementation of the service, which helps it to manage bandwidth usage, caused CableCARD-using customers, and those with cable-ready TVs or TiVo digital video recorders, to lose the ability to view dozens of channels included in their subscriptions.

Oceanic offered those customers two years' usage of set-top boxes at no extra charge, but the commission found the proposed solution insufficient.

The FCC's separate Notices of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture and Orders are both 19 pages long and give Oceanic's parent company, New York-based Time Warner Cable Inc., 30 days to pay the forfeitures or seek their reduction or cancellation.

The commission issued an earlier notice of apparent violation to Oceanic, citing its failure to provide state regulators with advance notice of its intent to implement switched digital video. At that time, a $7,500 forfeiture was proposed.

The forfeiture now has been upped to $20,000 for each island on which SDV was rolled out, with the additional demand that affected customers be reimbursed. 

On the Net:

Oahu: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-08-2301A1.pdf
Kauai: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-08-2300A1.pdf 
Earlier NAL, milder than these two: http://www.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2008/DA-08-1960A1.html
My coverage based on earlier NAL: https://archives.starbulletin.com/2008/08/27/business/engle.html