Local VoIP Numbers Can’t Be Blocked by Inmate Calling Providers, Wireline Bureau Says
Inmate calling service provider Securus lost a battle at the FCC Thursday. The Wireline Bureau denied its request to be able to block VoIP calls to services such as ConsCallHome, which uses VoIP routing to offer numbers local to the prison, reducing costs to make the call. Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn commended the bureau’s order, and called such services “innovative” and likely to reduce recidivism. “Call blocking is largely antithetical to the fundamental goal of ubiquity and reliability of the telecommunications network,” said the order (http://fcc.us/14MlyDE).
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The FCC voted 2-1 in August to overhaul ICS rates, making them much cheaper for prisoners and their families (CD Aug 12 p1). The text was released after our deadline Thursday. The ICS order, titled “Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services,” concludes that “billing-related call blocking by interstate ICS providers that do not offer an alternative to collect calling is an unjust and unreasonable practice under section 201(b),” the bureau’s order said. A FNPRM seeks comment on whether the commission should address call blocking generally, and specifically whether there should be exceptions to the general prohibition on blocking for billing related issues, or for non-geographically based numbers, the order said.
Securus petitioned the FCC in 2009 for a declaratory ruling that VoIP arrangements such as ConsCallHome, offered by Millicorp, were tantamount to prohibited “call diversion schemes” that Securus was permitted to block under commission precedent. Earlier this year, as a condition to a transfer of control application, Securus agreed to stop blocking inmate-initiated calls to Millicorp numbers. But Millicorp has said the largest ICS provider, Global Tel*Link, is still blocking calls -- and several ICS providers have claimed authority to do so.
"The Commission has allowed call blocking only under rare and limited circumstances,” the order said. “Securus has identified no Commission precedent that would authorize the blocking of calls from inmates to persons who subscribe to call routing services, regardless of whether those routing services offer local or non-local numbers to their customers."
Clyburn called the ruling “yet another step by the FCC toward making the cost of inmate calling more reasonable.” Services such as ConsCallHome are “innovative services,” she said, and the order “opens the door to affordable alternatives that spouses, parents and children can use to stay in touch with loved ones in prison. As studies have amply demonstrated, this kind of ongoing contact can help an inmate return to society as a productive citizen.”