State Regulators to Weigh ICS, NORS Resolutions at NARUC
NARUC will consider urging state legislatures to authorize commissions to reduce intrastate inmate calling service (ICS) rates to cost-based prices. State utility regulators also proposed Tuesday to vote at their meeting Nov. 5-6 and 9-11 on a resolution on providing…
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state access to the FCC's network outage reporting system (NORS). NARUC President Brandon Presley made good on a July promise to sponsor an ICS resolution, after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai urged action (see 2007240045). The FCC and NARUC urged governors last month to act (see 2009220051). Legislatures are best positioned "to address this issue by allocating additional authority to their State Commissions to investigate and assure cost-based fees,” says NARUC’s draft resolution. The NORS proposal echoes a 2015 recommendation that the FCC grant state agencies access to its NORS database in response to a California Public Utilities Commission 2009 petition (see 1502180058). “Granting States secure access to NORS data is consistent with a history of the FCC sharing confidential information with State commissions when a vital need is shown and the information is properly safeguarded,” says this year’s draft resolution. Republican FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and Democratic former member Mignon Clyburn (D) are on a Nov. 10 panel about the 2020 election’s impact on commission and broadband policy, NARUC announced Tuesday (see agenda).