FCC Proposes Near Doubling of Prison Phone Call Price Caps

FCC Reveals Plan to Nearly Double Price Caps for Prison, Jail Phone Calls

After weeks of hinting at a forthcoming proposal that could upend the ongoing battle to regulate the prices of phone and video calls for incarcerated people and their loved ones, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released that plan to the public. It would effectively gut the historic regulations approved by the commission in 2024. On October 7, in the hours after the first oral arguments in court over delays to implementation of th…

Oral arguments heard in FCC inmate phone call appeal

BOSTON (WWLP) - Several states, communication companies, and direct-action groups are suing the FCC for a policy mandating a cap for phone and video call rates for inmates. Reserves or management: how should Bay State protect forests? The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, is in charge of regulating interstate and intrastate communications with the purpose of ensuring public safety and promoting market competition. In this case, Co…

FCC Backtracks on 2024 Order to Cut 
Prison Phone and Video Rates by Half

Regulating the prison phone industry

Reports and resources on harm and dysfunction in the monopolistic prison phone industry.

Verizon Commc'ns Inc. v. Fed. Commc'ns Comm'n, No. 24-1733 (2d Cir. 2025)

Verizon Communications Inc. provided mobile voice and data services to customers and, until 2019, operated a program that sold access to customer device-location data through third-party aggregators. These aggregators resold the data to various entities for uses such as call routing and roadside assistance. Verizon relied on contractual arrangements and an external auditor to ensure that customer consent was obtained before disclosing location d…

1st Circ. Left In Limbo Over FCC's Prison Phone Rate Caps

First Circuit judges Tuesday questioned the Federal Communications Commission's turnabout in defense of its Biden-era prison phone rate caps and were unsure how to construct a legal ruling with the FCC poised to vote on a policy makeover within weeks.