The Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued written decisions granting Global Tel*Link's requests to invalidate two patents held by Securus Technologies, GTL said in a news release Monday. The rulings end existing patent infringement claims against GTL made by Securus and prevent any new suits related to the patents, GTL said. In one ruling, PTAB said Securus made incorrect statements to patent officials while seeking approval for one of the invalidated patents, the news release said. Securus didn't comment.
An FCC inmate calling service (ICS) order could come in October, parties involved in the commission rulemaking told us Tuesday. The commission appears to be looking at taking actions that would effectively reduce many ICS rates, said a participant.
FCC staff told Securus a final order on inmate calling service rules is imminent, said a filing reporting on meetings CEO Dennis Reinhold and others from the company had at the commission. “Securus noted particularly that it met with the three largest law enforcement organizations to seek their active participation in this proceeding,” said the filing in docket 12-375. Securus also said it responded to a recent filing by Pay-Tel on specific proposals for overhauling FCC rules for inmate calls (see 1507140065). Securus “stated its commitment to serving correctional facilities of any size” if the FCC adopts a rate cap that it, Pay-Tel and Global Tel*Link have proposed of 20 cents per minute for prepaid calls and 24 cents per minute for collect calls, the filing said. “Securus will file a more detailed, written response to Pay Tel’s filing very soon,” it said. CenturyLink, meanwhile, "understands the Commission’s interest in inmate calling service reform,” the telco said. “Given legitimate questions about the limits of the Commission’s statutory authority, if reform is to be lasting, it must be reasonable, comprehensive, and sensitive to the interests of all parties -- including inmate families, correctional authorities, and service providers.” CenturyLink said rules should include a uniform rate cap, limits on ancillary fees and commissions, and a transition plan for current service providers. Separate treatment for uniquely high-cost facilities also is important, the company said. “Juvenile detention centers, secure mental health facilities, and small jails are uniquely expensive to serve due to factors like exceptionally low call volume,” CenturyLink said. “While these facilities house vulnerable populations of inmates/residents that deserve the benefit of any regulatory protections the Commission adopts for other inmates, these facilities are particularly costly to serve due primarily to low call volumes.”
CenturyLink supports lowering calling costs for inmates and their families in a way that won’t reduce the availability of service, even though it doesn’t believe the FCC has legal authority over intrastate inmate calling service (ICS) rates, site commissions or ancillary fees. The commission "should adopt permanent unitary rate caps for ICS calls at or very near" the current interstate call levels, CenturyLink said in a filing posted Monday in docket 12-375. In 2013, the FCC issued an order setting hard caps of 21 cents per minute for interstate debit and prepaid calls and 25 cents/minute for interstate collect calls (along with "safe harbor” rates of 12 cents/minute for interstate debit and prepaid calls and 14 cents/minute for interstate collect calls). CenturyLink said the commission shouldn't adopt a tiered rate cap structure distinguishing between “jails” and “prisons,” as some have advocated.
Global Tel*Link asked the FCC to impose sanctions on Darrell Baker and the Alabama Public Service Commission for violating a protective order by posting confidential information from the company and other inmate calling service (ICS) providers in the federal agency's electronic comment filing system (ECFS). Baker, director of the Alabama PSC Utility Service Division and a frequent filer in the ICS proceeding, acknowledged his mistake, attributed it to ignorance and apologized. In a filing in docket 12-375 Thursday, GTL said Baker previously acknowledged that he had understood and would abide by the terms of the protective order, but it said he nevertheless filed confidential information from GTL and other ICS providers that was made publicly available in the ECFS July 9. "The detailed data included for various providers the numbers of calls, minutes of use, commissions broken out by types of calls, and other competitively sensitive information stratified by categories based on size of average daily inmate population," said the company. GTL said it alerted the FCC, which removed the information three hours after it was posted, but it wasn't aware of anything Baker had done to notify the FCC or other parties about the problem. "This is a serious breach of the Protective Order," said GTL, which argued Baker acted with "deliberate indifference" or "willfully violated" the order. GTL noted various possible sanctions -- such as suspension or disbarment from FCC practice, fines and denial to further access to confidential information -- but said it trusted the commission would "fashion appropriate measures." In a response Friday, Baker said he had never before filed confidential information and thought he was following proper procedures by submitting both a redacted version of his analysis and an unredacted version marked "CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION, SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER." Baker said he assumed the FCC would post only the redacted version for public consumption, but he subsequently learned he was supposed to have filed it by hard copy, not electronically. He said there was no intent to violate the confidentiality protections. "However, ignorance of the rules is no excuse," he said. "I should have more thoroughly researched the filing procedures and acknowledge my mistakes." Baker apologized twice to the seven affected ICS providers and the FCC, and said the error wouldn't be repeated. GTL's filing anticipated that Baker would claim the breach was "due to a simple oversight or misunderstanding on his part," but it said "Baker acted with contempt for the Protective Order." The FCC had no comment Monday.
The FCC released its declaratory ruling clarifying its interpretation of the Telephone Consumers Protection Act, approved over a dissent by Commissioner Ajit Pai and partial dissent by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly at the June 18 FCC meeting (see 1506180046). Pai in particular complained that the order will mean more class-action lawsuits under the TCPA. “While the Commission’s past interpretations have addressed nuanced aspects of the TCPA rules, changes in how consumers use their phones, how technology can access consumers, and the way consumers and businesses wish to make calls mean that we are presented with new issues regarding application and interpretation of the TCPA,” the ruling said. “Through their complaints and comments, consumers have expressed their frustration with unwanted voice calls and texts and have asked the Commission to preserve their privacy rights under the TCPA.”
Global Tel*Link proposed ancillary fees for inmate calling services (ICS) it would abide by if the FCC adopts a broader set of industry recommendations to revise ICS rates, said an ex parte filing submitted by the company and posted Monday in docket 12-375. The proposal would allow Global Tel*Link to collect transaction or deposit fees of up to $7.95/transaction when ICS customers use credit or debit cards or other customer-arranged payment mechanisms to establish or replenish their accounts or to pay for amounts due in arrears; money transfer fees of up to $2.50 to administer payments made through a third-party money transfer entity such as Western Union or MoneyGram; and per-call validation fees of up to 8 percent of the total amount charged for a call, excluding administrative support payments. "This voluntary commitment to limit ancillary charges is conditioned on the Commission's adoption of a comprehensive ICS rate regime as contemplated by the Joint Provider Reform Proposal," Global Tel*Link said.
The “widespread” comments filed on inmate calling service overhauls are “not consistent” and “plague the industry” with much regulatory uncertainty, Global Tel*Link said in a letter to the FCC posted Tuesday in docket 12-375. The company continues to back a joint proposal made by itself, Securus and Telmate (see 1410100086), the letter said. The joint proposal ”would lead to windfall profits for the largest companies,” Pay-Tel Communications President Vincent Townsend and company counsel Marcus Trathen of Brooks, Pierce told Wireline officials April 2, according to an ex parte filing also posted Tuesday. The joint proposal supports inmate calling rate caps that favor their clientele in prisons, said Pay-Tel, which serves more jails.
Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) said it negotiated its current contract with Global Tel*Link (GTL) to “drastically reduce” its inmate calling service (ICS) rates effective Wednesday to 5 cents per minute plus applicable taxes and federal USF fees for all calls within the U.S. The rate reduction is meant to comply with the FCC’s 2013 ICS rate cap order, which took effect last year, DRC said Tuesday. The FCC capped interstate call rates at 25 cents per minute for collect calls and 21 cents per minute for debit and prepaid calls. A 15-minute collect call cost would be capped at $3.75 under the FCC’s rules, while a 15-minute prepaid call fee would be capped at $3.15 (see report in the Aug. 12, 2013, issue). A 15-minute inmate call in Ohio cost $17.14 before the rate reduction, DRC said. GTL said it plans to replace all of its more than 2,000 phones in Ohio prisons by the end of the year and will install an additional 500 phones.
Comments are due Jan. 5, replies Jan. 20 in docket 12-375 on the FCC rulemaking notice on inmate calling services (ICS), said a Wireline bureau public notice Friday. The commission is seeking comment on making interim interstate rate caps permanent and on creating intrastate caps, and on how to deal with payments to correctional facilities, and ancillary fees (see 1410230026). A single rate for inmate calling service providers could “result in ICS providers refusing to provide service to smaller facilities and jails,” Blooston Mordkofsky’s Mary Sisak, representing the National Sheriffs' Association, and Breanna Bock-Nielsen, NSA director-government affairs, told Wireline Bureau pricing policy division staff Nov. 19, said an ex parte notice filed and posted on Friday. Global Tel*Link responded to Praeses’ Oct. 3 ex parte filing that argued the payment of commissions is not prohibited. Praeses, a consultant to correctional facilities, receives a portion of the commissions, and “its position regarding site commissions may be heavily influenced by its self-interest,” Global Tel*Link said in a letter to the commission posted as an ex parte notice, also Friday. Praeses didn't comment on Monday.