The FCC Wireline Bureau declined to stay the...
The FCC Wireline Bureau declined to stay the FCC inmate calling reform order Thursday. Global Tel*Link and Securus, top-two inmate calling service (ICS) providers, had asked the bureau to stay the decision pending judicial review. Bureau Chief Julie Veach said…
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the ICS providers were unlikely to succeed on the merits of their challenge, rejecting arguments that the FCC didn’t provide adequate notice that it contemplated a cost-based rate cap structure (http://fcc.us/17NNM4z). Contrary to their characterization, “the adopted regulatory framework does not constitute traditional rate of return regulation,” which uses a “complex tariff filing process,” Veach said. Generally, the ICS providers also failed to prove the public interest supports grant of their stay petitions, the bureau chief said. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said she was “pleased that the Wireline Competition Bureau denied requests to indefinitely stay or hold in abeyance reforms to provide just, reasonable and fair rates to inmates and their families.” Clyburn, who was acting chairwoman when the original order was approved, said she looks forward to working with the other commissioners “to adopt permanent rate caps to ensure that inmate calling service phone calls are just and reasonable as required by the statute."