The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) and Office of Economics and Analytics (Office) have announced the results of the 2024 Urban Rate Survey for fixed voice and broadband services. The Commission has posted the fixed voice and broadband services data collected in the most recent urban rate survey on its website.
The Bureau and Office have announced the 2024 reasonable comparability benchmarks for fixed voice and broadband services for eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) that are subject to broadband public interest obligations. Based on the survey results, the 2024 urban average monthly rate is $34.27. The reasonable comparability benchmark for voice services is $55.13. The FCC has provided a table that contains the 2024 benchmarks for several different broadband service offerings.
The Bureau and Office have also announced that they have adopted a minimum monthly usage allowance of 660 GB for 2024 for ETCs that are subject to public interest obligations for fixed broadband. The minimum usage allowance for carriers that receive support from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund is the greater of 250 GB or the average usage calculated by the Bureau for the Minimum and Baseline tiers and 2 Terabytes for the Above-Baseline and Gigabit tiers.
