Wireline Competition Bureau Updates Applicable Rates for Inmate Calling Services

With this Public Notice, we notify providers and consumers of Inmate Calling Services (ICS) of the applicable rates for ICS.

On August 4, 2016, the Federal Communications Commission released the ICS Reconsideration Order, in which the Commission increased the ICS rate caps to expressly account for reasonable facility costs. Several parties filed motions asking the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit) to stay the revised rate caps adopted in the ICS Reconsideration Order pending judicial review. On November 2, 2016, the D.C. Circuit granted those motions. Accordingly, “pending further order of the court,” the ICS Reconsideration Order is stayed “insofar as [it] imposes rate caps on inmate calling services.” The interim rate caps set forth in the Commission’s rules – $0.21 per minute for debit and prepaid ICS calls and $0.25 per minute for collect ICS calls – remain in effect for all interstate ICS calls. The interim rate caps do not apply to intrastate ICS calls.