The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) has announced the results of the most recent urban rate survey for fixed voice and broadband services. The FCC conducts annual surveys of fixed voice and broadband service rates offered to customers in urban areas and uses the data to determine the local voice rate floor and reasonable comparability rate benchmarks for universal service purposes. This year, the 2016 rate floor for voice services for incumbent eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) is $22.49 and the reasonable comparability benchmark for voice services is $49.51. For broadband rates, the FCC has released a table providing the 2017 benchmark for a number of different broadband service offerings, depending on the supported service’s download and upload bandwidths and usage allowance. The Bureau has also posted an Excel spreadsheet and online tool to allow providers to calculate the benchmark for specific service characteristics. In addition, the Bureau has announced for 2017 a fixed broadband required minimum usage allowance of 160 GB for both price cap carriers receiving Phase II model-based support and rate-of-return carriers.
