Contraband Cellphone NPRM Expected to Get Vote at March Meeting
The FCC appears poised to take on contraband cellphones in prisons in an NPRM at the March 23 commissioners’ meeting, industry officials said Wednesday. The focus is in keeping with Chairman Ajit Pai’s complaints last year about the lack of progress on the issue. Wireless industry officials raised concerns that a focus on contraband cellphones could open up a debate on whether to legalize jammers as one solution. Industry officials said they understand Pai wants to make contraband cellphones one of his “signature” issues. The FCC declined to comment.
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Under then-Chairman Julius Genachowski, the FCC launched a look at technological ways to curb contraband phones. It released an NPRM in 2013 asking a battery of questions about how to clamp down on the problem (see 1305030026).
Last April, Pai and then-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) held a field hearing in that state on contraband cellphones in prisons (see 1604060058). “We typically think of cellphones as useful devices,” Pai said at the time. “But in the hands of inmates, contraband cellphones are weapons.” In October 2015, Pai said then-Chairman Tom Wheeler dropped the ball on the issue, a charge denied by Wheeler (see 1510220047).
Jamie Barnett, chief of the Public Safety Bureau under Genachowski, said Wednesday the contraband cellphone issue isn't an easy one. Cell signal jammers are a problem for carriers because they create holes in their systems, Barnett said. Managed access systems (MAS) work well, but tend to be expensive, he said. “It may be the right solution for some prisons, but the problem is that the inmates can still communicate with a cellphone even without spectrum.” Inmates can record messages or videos on a phone and then pass it along inside or outside the correctional facility, he said.
“What we really need is technological solutions that basically render the cellphone useless,” Barnett said. “What I hope the NPRM will do is cast a wide net, say, ‘What is technologically available now? What is something that’s going to work with the carriers? What is something that’s not going to endanger homeland security or public safety and be affordable to the prisons and the jails?’”
In a recent meeting with Pai and wireless aide Rachel Bender, Global Tel*Link CEO Brian Oliver and others from the company explained the advantages of the kinds of MAS, which it sells. “GTL shared details about its MAS operations and the ongoing challenges the industry faces with this type of deployment,” the company said in a filing in docket 13-111. “GTL also shared some of the solutions it is using in place of MAS such as TSA-style security, vision screening technologies, and other investigative tools that provide correctional facilities more comprehensive security and law enforcement intelligence for managing their facilities.” John Fischer, CEO of Try Safety First, said in a second filing that he was at the FCC Feb. 17 to demonstrate the company’s anti-contraband cellphone technology. Fischer said he met with staff including Pai aides and acting General Counsel Brendan Carr.