FCC Announces Availability of Preliminary Incarcerated People's Communications Services Database

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) and the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) announce the availability, under the terms of the 2023 IPCS Protective Order, of the preliminary Incarcerated People’s Communications Services (IPCS) Database (2023 IPCS Database). The FCC staff developed this database to help analyze data and other information that IPCS providers submitted in response to the Commission’s 2023 Mandatory Data Collection. That analysis facilitates the Commission’s implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022. The preliminary 2023 IPCS Database contains IPCS providers’ confidential information, including cost and revenue information. The preliminary 2023 IPCS Database also includes geocoding information on facility locations added by the FCC staff to facilitate outside parties’ review of the data submissions. Making this preliminary database available at this time will allow interested parties whose counsel and outside consultants comply with the terms of the 2023 IPCS Protective Order to rely on a common dataset in evaluating the Commission’s proposals in this proceeding, while ensuring providers remain protected against the unwarranted disclosure of their confidential information. FCC staff will continue to refine this database to ensure that it accurately and reliably accounts for the data and related information submitted by providers.