Pay Tel, an inmate calling service (ICS) provider,...

Pay Tel, an inmate calling service (ICS) provider, petitioned the FCC Wednesday for a waiver of the interim prison calling rate caps (http://bit.ly/KysX2o). Pay Tel “cannot recover its costs on a holding company level” if required to charge such low interstate rates, it said. The “rate cap framework does not adequately address Pay Tel’s demonstrated costs of providing ICS, and a waiver of the cap rules is therefore appropriate,” Pay Tel said. “The Order adopts rate caps for interstate ICS based generally on Pay Tel’s demonstrated average costs, meaning that Pay Tel will be legally prohibited from recovering more than its company-level average costs from interstate calls. However, the Order fails to preempt below-average-cost intrastate rate constraints, thereby leaving Pay Tel unable to recover its total-company costs and placing Pay Tel in an economically unsustainable situation."