Securus Asks FCC to Condition TKC's Buy of ICSolutions on Halt in Site Commissions
Securus said the FCC should condition the sale of ICSolutions to TKC Holdings on a requirement that TKC stop the payment of interstate site commissions to correctional authorities. Securus took no position on the merits of the deal, but said…
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ICSolutions was making site commission payments on its interstate inmate calling services that were unlawful under a 2013 FCC order that capped interim interstate ICS rate caps and remains in effect after a federal court stayed the commission's 2015 permanent ICS rate caps. "The Commission ordered that 'site commission payments and other provider expenditures that are not reasonably related to the provision of ICS are not recoverable through ICS rates, and therefore may not be passed on to inmates and their friends and families.' The First Inmate Rate Order makes clear that friends and family must not be forced to assist the ICS carrier in recouping site commission payments,” Securus said in a Friday filing in docket 16-188 on TKC/ICSolutions. "In Securus’s experience, it is inescapable that an ICS carrier will pass through the cost of site commissions in its rates, particularly under the Commission’s interim rate caps. Securus believes that under the interim rate caps, it is economically impossible to continue paying commissions while covering the cost of service and without passing through commissions to end users in the calling rates. ... Any carrier that still can afford to pay site commissions must be drawing from call revenue to do so, and that call revenue is obtained through calling rates."