The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court, issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
South Carolina
After review of a Staff report, the PSC concluded that for the Dual Party Relay System to be sustainable in the long-term, the funding must include contributors that are benefiting from the relay system, including wireless and VoIP service providers operating in South Carolina. The PSC recognizes that this can only be accomplished through a legislative change to the law. Until such time as the funding mechanism can be changed, the PSC adopts Staff’s recommendation that spending on programs such as Real-Time Closed Captioning of local news broadcasts should be reduced (but not eliminated).
FCC
In a filing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Court, the FCC opposed the motions of Securus Technologies, Inc., Global Tel*Link, and CenturyLink Public Communications, Inc. for a stay pending judicial review of its order imposing interim caps on rates for interstate payphone service provided to prison inmates. Reiterating many of the arguments made in its Order denying petitions for stay filed at the administrative level, See the Regulatory Mix dated November 22, 2013, the FCC argued that the petitioners were seeking “a return to the discredited system of monopoly exploitation and overcharges” and “have not met the stringent test for equitable relief, and the Court should deny their motions.”
