4-0 FCC OK Likely on Interim ICS Rate Caps

A draft order cutting inmate calling services rate caps and a Further NPRM to revise site commission payments are expected to be approved 4-0 by FCC members Thursday (see 2104280084). The draft order sets interim caps for interstate calls at 12 cents per minute for smaller facilities and 14 cents for larger ones. Commissioner aides held some meetings where minor changes were suggested, so expect some tweaks to the final text, officials said. The draft order is likely to “look quite similar to what it does now,” one said. The FCC declined to comment Wednesday. The commission also takes aim at site commissions in the draft order that would allow providers to collect no more than 2 cents per minute, which means an incarcerated person may be charged either 14 or 16 cents per minute for an interstate call. NCIC Inmate Communications CEO Bill Pope said some providers pushed back on that rate, and he suggested capping rates based on the average daily population of incarcerated individuals (see 2105120031). “We definitely need to cap the rate,” Pope said, but agencies “are paying to support these systems, and some of them … just want to be able to cover the cost of offering the phone service.”