Securus Opposes Pay-Tel Waiver Petition
Pay-Tel Communications’ Oct. 31 petition for an extension of its waiver from FCC interim interstate inmate calling service (ICS) rate caps should be denied, Securus said in an opposition posted in docket 12-375 on Wednesday. Pay-Tel’s 46-cents-a-minute rate “is more…
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than double the Interim Rate Cap that every other ICS provider in the country is charging. It is well more than double Pay-Tel’s reported ICS costs. And it is almost double the rate that Pay Tel believes is reasonable for jails going forward” in its proposal for permanent rate caps, Securus said. Because of intrastate rates in some states, Pay-Tel can't recover its costs, the ICS provider said in its petition. Without the waiver from interstate caps, Pay-Tel said in its petition that it “would have to substantially curtail its operations, most likely by terminating service in its smallest facilities, or would go out of business altogether.” Comments are due on Pay-Tel's petition Nov. 12, replies Nov. 19, said a public notice seeking comment.