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FCC RIN: 3060-AJ92 Publication ID: Spring 2015 
Title: Connect America Fund; Urban Rate Survey; WC Docket No. 10-90 
Abstract:

Section 254(b) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires the FCC (the Commission) to preserve and advance access in rural and high-cost areas to telecommunications and information services that are reasonably comparable to those services provided in urban areas and at reasonably comparable rates. Fees totaling approximately $4.5 billion are assessed on interstate, end-user telecommunications revenues to support voice and broadband deployment in rural, high-cost areas. To implement certain reforms to universal service support, the Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau and the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau adopted the form and content for a survey of urban rates for fixed voice and fixed broadband residential services. The information collected in this survey will be used to establish a rate floor that eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) receiving high-cost loop support (HCLS) or frozen high-cost support must meet to receive their full support amounts and to help ensure that universal service support recipients offering fixed voice and broadband services do so at reasonably comparable rates to those in urban areas. The rate floor will prevent the use of universal service subsidizes to support artificially low local rates in rural areas. The comparability requirements will ensure that rates are reasonably comparable for voice as well as broadband service, between urban and rural, insular, and high-cost areas. Rates must be reasonably comparable so that consumers in rural, insular, and high-cost areas have meaningful access to these services. The Bureau will conduct an annual survey of urban rates and calculate the urban rate floor and comparability benchmark annually, beginning in 2014.

 
Agency: Federal Communications Commission(FCC)  Priority: Substantive, Nonsignificant 
RIN Status: Previously published in the Unified Agenda Agenda Stage of Rulemaking: Long-Term Actions 
Major: Undetermined  Unfunded Mandates: No 
CFR Citation: 47 CFR 54   
Legal Authority: 47 U.S.C. 151    47 U.S.C. 152    47 U.S.C. 154(i)    47 U.S.C. 155    47 U.S.C. 201 to 205    47 U.S.C. 218 to 220    47 U.S.C. 254    47 U.S.C. 303(r)    47 U.S.C. 403   
Legal Deadline:  None
Timetable:
Action Date FR Cite
Public Notice  08/29/2012  77 FR 52279   
Order  05/17/2013  78 FR 29063   
Next Action Undetermined  To Be Determined 
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Required: Undetermined  Government Levels Affected: Undetermined 
Included in the Regulatory Plan: No 
RIN Data Printed in the FR: No 
Agency Contact:
Suzanne Yelen
Attorney Advisor
Federal Communications Commission
Wireline Competition Bureau, 45 L Street NE,
Washington, DC 20554
Phone:202 418-0626
Email: suzanne.yelen@fcc.gov