US FCC Votes to Limit Inmate Phone Call Rates

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to limit interstate inmate phone call rates - but set the cap at a higher level than it proposed last year.

The FCC has spent a decade debating the issue, which has been the subject of several federal court challenges involving the phone calls of more than 2 million U.S. prisoners.

The revised caps would on average cut the price of a 15-minute phone call for most inmates by nearly 35 percent, the FCC said. The 2015 FCC rate cap was put on hold by a federal court in May. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)