The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) and Office of Economics and Analytics (Office) have announced the 2025 reasonable comparability benchmarks for fixed voice and broadband services for eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) that are subject to broadband public interest obligations. The Commission has posted the fixed voice and broadband services data collected in the most recent urban rate survey on its website.
The FCC has also announced the required minimum usage allowance for ETCs subject to public interest obligations for fixed broadband. Based on the survey results, the 2025 urban average monthly rate is $30.67. The reasonable comparability benchmark for voice services is $55.55. The FCC has provided a table that contains the 2025 benchmarks for several different broadband service offerings.
The Commission has also adopted a minimum monthly usage allowance of 720 GB for 2025. The minimum usage allowance for carriers receiving support from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund is either 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.
