FCC Confirms Millicorp and ConsCallHome.com to Provide Phone Savings for Inmates' Families

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Sep 27, 2013, 11:36 ET

FORT MYERS, Fla., Sept. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Millicorp congratulates the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for taking meaningful action to reduce the costs to friends and family members of remaining in touch with their incarcerated loved ones. Millicorp extends its thanks and appreciation to the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) and to Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and her current and former staff for denying the Securus Petition for Declaratory Ruling (WC Docket No. 09-144). By doing so, the FCC has made clear that inmate calling service (ICS) providers may not block calls by the nation's 2.2 million inmates to the customers of Millicorp's ConsCallHome.com service.

The Petition, which was filed by Securus Technologies, Inc. on July 24, 2009, requested the FCC to permit Securus and other ICS providers to block inmate calls to customers of Millicorp's ConsCallHome.com service. ConsCallHome.com uses VoIP call routing technology to lower the costs of inmate calls to ConsCallHome.com customers, which enables inmates and their friends and family members to afford to communicate more while the inmates are incarcerated. The ConsCallHome.com service therefore also reduces the revenue of ICS providers. Millicorp has been vigorously opposing the Petition for the past four years and has met with the FCC many times since 2009 to discuss its concerns.

The WCB stated in its order denying the Petition: "We deny the Petition because we conclude that the precedent cited by Securus does not authorize the call blocking practice described in the Petition. As the Commission has previously found, call blocking is largely antithetical to the fundamental goal of ubiquity and reliability of the telecommunications network. We find that this situation is no exception. This Declaratory Ruling and Order furthers the Commission's goals of ensuring the integrity and reliability of telecommunications networks."

In addition to causing the WCB to deny the Petition, Acting Chairwoman Clyburn also tackled the inmate telephone rate issues by, for the first time, directly regulating the rates charged to inmates by ICS providers (WC Docket No. 12-375). In combination, these two FCC actions pave the way for millions of impacted families, including 2.7 million children with an incarcerated parent, to afford to remain in contact. Prior to these decisions, egregious inmate prison payphone rates and unlawful ICS inmate call blocking often broke the bonds between inmates and their prior lives.

Timothy Meade, CEO and President of Millicorp, said in a recent Millicorp board of directors meeting: "We knew that the FCC would reach the right decision. We are proud of our ConsCallHome service and always knew that it fully complied with the FCC's rules. The claims of the ICS providers to the contrary have now been exposed as self-serving falsehoods." Mr. Meade continued, "Over the past three and half years we have walked the halls of Congress, the Senate, and the FCC to share the stories of thousands of families who were caused great suffering by predatory inmate telephone rates and the blocking of inmate calls. Imagine being forced to decide whether to buy milk for your children or to allow them to talk with their incarcerated mother or father. Many, many families faced this dilemma every week. This was a victory for those families."

According to Mr. Meade, "Chairwoman Clyburn not only listened, but she acted. In the last month, she entirely has reshaped the landscape for inmate calling. Chairwoman Clyburn, her current and former staff, and the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau have made it possible for literally millions of families to stay together even when separated by bars. I'm proud to thank them on behalf of all of these people whose lives they have so profoundly affected."

For information on this topic please visit: http://www.millicorp.com/press/inthenews

About Millicorp: Millicorp is a global provider of communication products, services and applications. Millicorp provides a range of services for both consumers and small/medium-sized businesses, such as MilliTalk, a mobile telephone app that enables users to save money on voice calls; ConsCallHome, a service to reduce the costs of inmate calls. In addition, Millicorp's Millivox wholesale VoIP division provides an evolutionary solution engineered with an advanced stage infrastructure to deliver a reliable, simple to use, and affordable wholesale communications network with a nationwide footprint.

Press Contacts:
Donovan Osborne
Millicorp, Director of Communications
239-443-5882