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AlabamaPublic Service Commission Conducts ProceedingTo Examine Jurisdiction To Regulate Inmate Phone Service
The Alabama Public Service Commission, Telecommunications Division, (PSC) maintains a web site at http://www.psc.state.al.us/telecom/webpage3.htm. Docket Number 30632 was a general proceeding to determine the applicability to inmate phone service providers of the state’s Communications Reform Act of 2005. Title 37, Code of Alabama, Chapter 2A, § 37-2A-1, et seq. Under the Reform Act, the Public Service Commission is divested of jurisdiction to regulate telecommunications carriers with regard to retail service contracts as between service providers on the one hand, and users or consumers of such services on the other. After inviting written comment from interested parties by Order dated 7 November 2007, the Commission considered the arguments and positions put forward.
Global Tel*Link, Evercom Systems, Inc., and T-Netix Telecommunications Services, Inc., prisoner phone service providers, argued that the Communications Reform Act of 2005 removed the Commission’s jurisdiction to regulate the rates they charge to provide prisoner telephone service. One service provider, Pay∙Tel, agreed with Public Staff that the Act did not divest the PSC of jurisdiction because it was intended to govern contractual relationships between customers and providers.
Ultimately, the Commission concluded that the Act did not apply to prisoner phone service providers. That determination was based on both technical and practical reasons, significant among which is the fact that prisoners are not in a position to choose a range of services provided by different competitors. The Commission thus decided that it retains jurisdiction over inmate phone service providers who are subject to all previously issued Orders and Rules. Order of 10 March 2008.
Although it is not an explicit part of the record in these proceedings, it appears that the central concern of the prisoner telephone service providers unsurprisingly involved their objective to be relieved of all regulations governing rates for prisoners’ calls. ALABAMA PSC DOCKET 30632 - documents of interest: COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 2005 COMMENTS FOR EVERCOM SYSTEMS, INC., T-NETIX TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES, INC. AND SOUTHERN PUBLIC COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION
COMMENTS ON COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 2005 FOR GLOBAL TEL*LINK CORPORATION
REPLY COMMENTS REGARDING INMATE PHONE SERVICE FOR PAY TEL COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
ORDER FOR IN RE: GENERIC PROCEEDING TO DETERMINE APPLICABILITY OF THE COMMUNICATIONS REFORM ACT OF 2005 TO INMATE PHONE SERVICE
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