Calif. Caps Inmate Phone Rates at 7 Cents
California Public Utilities Commission members unanimously supported reducing inmate calling services rates, at a virtual Thursday meeting. Commissioners voted 5-0 to adopt a proposed interim ICS order capping intrastate rates at 7 cents per minute for debit, prepaid and collect calls, and prohibiting some fees. ICS providers will have 45 days to reduce rates. A day earlier, at the first meeting of the California Middle-Mile Advisory Committee, state legislators questioned the CPUC’s approach to locating nodes of an upcoming open-access network.
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“This step today is a big step, although other states have gone further,” said Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves. Calls at jails and prisons are free in Connecticut, and the average 15-minute call in Illinois is 14 cents, she said. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation recently set a 2.5 cents rate for state prisons through a six-year contract with Global Tel*Link (GTL), while San Francisco and San Diego made inmate calls free and Los Angeles is considering the same, she noted. The 2.5 cents rate may not be high enough in all circumstances, so capping at 7 cents gives “a very generous buffer” for cost variations, the commissioner said.
Rates could be reduced further. The CPUC plans a second phase in the proceeding to adopt a permanent rate structure and look at appropriate fees for text and video communications, said Guzman Aceves. CPUC President Marybel Batjer said “It's striking to me that these services are not free.”
Interim changes are “all steps in the right direction” that will “provide immediate relief,” said Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma. Before, a 15-minute call could cost $26; now, it’s $1.05 at most, she said. The ICS order “will have a profound, positive and immediate effect on the lives of thousands if not tens of thousands of people,” said Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen. Inmates and their families are disproportionately low-income and people of color, noted Commissioner Darcie Houck.
GTL earlier said California’s interim ICS plan might be illegal, but consumer groups and prisoner rights advocates largely supported rate reductions, in comments earlier this month (see 2108030041 and 2108100023). Inmates and their loved ones told the commission at an April hearing (see 2104290034) how high ICS rates disconnect families. GTL declined to comment now.
Middle Mile
Guzman Aceves at the first meeting on Wednesday of the California Middle-Mile Advisory Committee defended the use of 100 Mbps download speeds as a minimum to test whether an area is served. Last month’s $6 billion broadband law established the committee, which includes four legislators and officials from the CPUC and other California agencies (see 2107200056).
The CPUC is seeking comment by Aug. 27 on location recommendations for the statewide open-access, middle-mile broadband network required by the law (see 2108060037). Guzman Aceves, assigned to the docket (R.20-09-011), included in the Aug. 6 ruling a table showing the number of households unserved at 100 Mbps and asked if it’s “reasonable to assume counties with a disproportionately high number of unserved households (e.g., 50% or more unserved at 100 Mbps download) are areas with insufficient middle-mile network access?”
Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) asked about using 100 Mbps to define unserved, praising the ambition but saying she wants to know who has between that speed and 25/3 Mbps. Gonzalez, sponsoring a bill to update the California Advanced Services Fund (see 2108160046), noted California Cable and Telecommunications Association President Carolyn McIntyre’s question in the Zoom chat asking why 100 Mbps is being used for unserved rather than the 25/3 Mbps definition used in the CASF broadband infrastructure account for last-mile deployment.
The CPUC lifted 100 Mbps from a 2020 executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who set 100 Mbps as the goal (see 2008180045), answered Communications Division Director Rob Osborn. Assemblymember Jim Wood (D) and Sen. Mike McGuire (D) said they prefer that unserved people get broadband before those with low speeds get upgrades.
Using 100 Mbps could show unserved places that were hidden by assessing an entire area as served if even one household there has 25/3 Mbps, responded Guzman Aceves. The CPUC commissioner wants “to make sure we don’t inadvertently leave the most unserved ... behind.”
California’s long-term goal is 100 Mbps, but the legislation requires the PUC to prioritize areas of the state unserved by at least 25/3 Mbps, noted California Finance Department Chief Deputy Gayle Miller.