Wright Group Backs FCC ICS Proposals; Telmate Seeks Pause; Briefing Suspended
The Wright petitioners backed an FCC draft order to raise inmate calling service rate caps. The group, which advocates for inmates and their families, said the order is needed to reinstate caps on all domestic ICS calls after a court…
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stayed rate caps from a 2015 order, which left only interim 2013 interstate rate caps in place. The FCC-proposed rate cap increases, which it plans to vote on Thursday (see 1607140087), would give ICS providers a windfall beyond their costs, but also would "eliminate any basis for ICS providers and correctional facilities to argue that any aspect of their cost to provide ICS to inmates and their loved ones will not be reimbursed," said a filing posted Monday in docket 12-375 by the group summarizing a meeting with agency officials, including an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler. The petitioners provided evidence they said showed ICS providers and correctional authorities had recently amended their contracts to preserve revenue -- which would otherwise be lost under the FCC's 2015 ancillary fee restrictions -- by raising uncapped intrastate rates and adopting new fees. "The information provided in Exhibit B highlight the extent to which the ICS providers and correctional authorities will go to ensure that their profit margins are untouched by Commission ICS reform," the Wright group said. "If Telmate, Securus and GTL [Global Tel*Link] are willing to propose amendments to their existing contracts to keep each party 'whole,' the Commission is correct in its decision not to ban site commissions. Instead, it is clear that, should the Commission ban site commissions as these parties suggest, ICS providers and their correctional partners simply will devise new attempts to divvy up the unjust, unreasonable and unfairly earned ICS revenue." Telmate, Securus and GTL didn't comment to us Monday. Telmate asked the commission "to pause before it imposes yet another set of new rates" on ICS providers. "If the Commission is concerned about the legal validity of its most recent Order, it should revisit that decision in an orderly fashion, on a full record and with a meaningful opportunity to comment," said a Telmate filing Friday summarizing meetings with FCC officials. Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a short order (in Pacer) suspending the briefing schedule in the current ICS litigation "pending disposition" of an FCC motion to hold the case in abeyance (see 1607200053).