Trading name GTL Industry Telecommunications Founded 1991 Parent organization GTEL Holdings, Inc. | Website gtl.net Headquarters Reston | |
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Key people Brian D. Oliver, CEOJeffrey Haidinger, COOSteve Yow, CFO Products Telephone services in prisons Subsidiaries Public Communications Services, Inc. | ||
Global tel link is a scam
Global Tel Link (GTL), formerly known as Global Telcoin, Inc. and Global Tel*Link Corporation, is a Reston, Virginia-based telecommunications company, founded in 1980, that provides Inmate Calling Service (ICS) through an "integrated information technology solutions" for correctional facilities which includes inmates payment and deposit, facility management, and "visitation solutions". The company's CEO is Brian D. Oliver. By 2015, GTL controlled 50% of the Inmate Calling Services' $1.2 billion telecommunications industry.
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GTL, along with the wealthy private-equity firms that own them, such as Veritas Capital, have been criticized by advocacy groups, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg Business, and some lawmakers, for charging overly high prices in their monopoly in communication with incarcerated individuals. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has tried unsuccessfully for many years to cap the price of phone calls. The major providers — led by GTL, Securus Technologies, and CenturyLink — and a group of state and local law enforcement officials, have challenged the authority of the commission to regulate calling prices. In March 2016, the US Supreme Court held that the FCC could not cap the cost of calls from prisons, but could regulate ancillary charges.
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Board of Directors
According to Bloomberg, in 2017, Brian D. Oliver was Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jeffrey Haidinger was President and Chief Operating Officer (COO), and Steve Yow was Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Anthony R. Bambocci was Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President, and Matthew Caesar was Senior Vice President of Engineering and Development. Board members included Hugh D. Evans and Ramzi M. Musallam from Veritas Capital and Jeffrey C. Weber from DC Capital Partners, LLC.
History
GTL was founded in 1980 in Mobile, Alabama under the name Global Telcoin, Inc. The company changed its name in 1999 to Global Tel*Link Corporation. Private-equity firms Veritas Capital and Goldman Sachs purchased GTL in from Gores Equity LLC for $345 million. In October 2011, GTL was sold for $1 billion.
Reception
As with other inmate telephone providers, GTL has faced media scrutiny over the cost of its Inmate Calling Service (ICS) and lack of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) oversight, entering into concession contracts with local prisons in order to have a monopoly on the provision of inmate telecom. The FCC reported that an inmate call from GTL could cost as much as US$17.30 for a 15 minute call, The company claimed that these high costs were required in order to securely monitor these calls.
In 2015, the FCC implemented a rule to cap the fees for interstate inmate phone calls at $3.75 for 15 minutes. But, in March 2016, in the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the FCC could not cap rates on prison phone calls, but upheld its ability to cap other ancillary charges.