ICS Record Needs Refresh, After Court Loss, Wireline Bureau Says
The FCC Wireline Bureau wants to know whether to cap ancillary service charges for inmate calling services (ICS) when they're subject to both federal and state regulatory authority, said a public notice Tuesday on docket 12-375. The bureau wants to…
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refresh the docket in response to a remand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after Global Tel*Link v. FCC, when the court "could not discern from the record whether ancillary fees can be segregated between interstate and intrastate calls." A 2015 ICS order didn't address the question, the bureau said. "We now seek specific comment on whether each permitted ICS ancillary service charge may be segregated between interstate and intrastate calls and, if so, how." Staff wants to know how to proceed when such services are jurisdictionally mixed: "Should we simply apply the cap to jurisdictionally mixed services?" The bureau wants to make sure next steps are consistent with the D.C. Circuit's decision.