Inmate Family Advocates Dispute Applicant Defense of Securus' Planned Buy of ICSolutions
Inmate family advocates pressed the FCC to reject or at least condition Securus Technologies' proposed buy of Inmate Calling Solutions from TKC Holdings, despite applicant opposition to their petitions to deny (see 1807240029 and 1807170054). There remains "a substantial question…
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of material fact as to whether Securus has the requisite character qualifications to hold the license of a competitor provider," said the reply of the Wright Petitioners and seven other groups, posted Tuesday in docket 18-193. "The proposed acquisition of a competitor licensee is precisely the sort of application for which character qualifications are appropriately reviewed. Second, the proposed transaction will reduce competition among inmate calling services ('ICS') providers that will likely result in consumer harm." Hold the transaction in abeyance pending full investigation "into Securus’s alleged [Communications Act] Section 222 violations, and find that the proposed transaction does not meet the Commission’s public interest requirements" or consider "appropriate conditions," the groups asked. The Urban Justice Center's Corrections Accountability Project disputed "particularly inaccurate" claims in the opposition: that there are "ample competitors" for correctional facility ICS contracts, that the deal would be Securus' first acquisition of such a provider, that ICSolutions holds no ITS patents and that ICS rates, terms and conditions won't change.