Incarcerated People's Communication Services; Implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act; Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services
In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) adopts rules addressing all intrastate, interstate, and international audio and video incarcerated people's communication services (IPCS), including video visitation services. The reforms include adopting permanent rate caps for audio IPCS and interim rate caps for video; prohibiting IPCS providers from making site commission payments associated with IPCS and preempting state and local laws and regulations requiring such commissions; prohibiting IPCS providers from imposing any separate ancillary service charges on IPCS consumers; strengthening the Commission's requirements for access to IPCS by incarcerated people with disabilities; permitting IPCS providers to offer optional alternate pricing plans that comply with the rate caps; strengthening existing consumer disclosure and inactive account requirements; revising the existing annual reporting and certification requirements; facilitating enforcement of the new IPCS rules; and delegating authority to the Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB), Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB), and Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA).
What this rule actually says
The FCC set new rules for companies that provide phone, video, or messaging services to incarcerated people in jails and prisons. The regulation caps how much these services can cost, forbids certain fees and commission payments, and requires better accessibility for people with disabilities. Think: if you're operating a video calling system for a prison, or a messaging app used in detention facilities, this affects you.
Who it applies to
- If you provide any communication service (audio, video, messaging) used by incarcerated people in U.S. jails or prisons — this applies to you, regardless of whether you built it specifically for that purpose or people just ended up using it there.
- If you're in any U.S. jurisdiction — the rule covers intrastate, interstate, and international services, so location doesn't exempt you.
- If you charge for these services — the rate caps and fee prohibitions are the core of this rule. Free services are out of scope.
- If you take commissions from correctional facilities — this is explicitly banned.
- Scope in: call/video rates, messaging charges, accessibility features for disabled users. Scope out: the content of communications, monitoring of calls, security features.
What founders need to do
- Audit your user base (2–3 days): Determine whether incarcerated people actually use your product. Check support tickets, user signups, and facility partnerships. If the answer is "probably not," document that decision.
- Review your pricing structure (3–5 days): If you do serve this market, map your rates against FCC caps. The rule sets specific per-minute and per-call limits. Calculate whether you're compliant or need adjustments.
- Remove prohibited charges (1–2 days): Strip out any ancillary fees (convenience fees, payment processing charges, etc.) and any commission arrangements with facilities. These are now banned.
- Strengthen accessibility (1–2 weeks): Review your service for people with disabilities. Add features like TTY compatibility, video relay integration, or captioning if you haven't already.
- Set up reporting (ongoing, ~4 hours/year): Keep records of your rates, customer complaints, and service outages. The FCC now requires annual reporting from IPCS providers.
Bottom line
If you're not deliberately serving correctional facilities or prisons, ignore this — but if you discover incarcerated users exist, act now to audit pricing and remove banned fees before FCC enforcement starts.