Rural Health Care

Urban Rates Search

The Urban Rate Search will help applicants complete Line 40 on the Funding Request and Certification Form (Form 466) for Funding Year 2005. Applicants that are requesting telecommunications support using an urban/rural rate comparison may refer to this database to obtain an urban rate. Applicants may compare rates for functionally similar services as viewed from the end user's perspective. Services are considered functionally similar when operated at advertised speeds within the same category (see below) and when the nature of the service is the same (symmetrical or asymmetrical). The FCC's November 2003 Order created the following "safe harbor" categories of functionally equivalent services:

 

Low

144 - 256 kilobytes per second (kbps)

Medium

257 - 768 kbps

High

769 - 1,400 kbps

T-1

1.4 - 8 Megabits per second (mbps)

T-3

8.1 - 50 mbps

 

Examples:

  • A state entity that can purchase from a state master contract may use the contract rates for an urban area under that master contract as a comparison. However, a rural health care provider (HCP) not eligible to purchase from the state master contract could not use those contract rates for its urban comparison.
  • If a rural HCP has a term or volume discounted service agreement, then the urban rate should also reflect a term or volume discount. (Evidence of the rural multi-year or volume service agreement, such as a contract, bill, or other document that shows the term or volume requirement must be submitted.)
  • A percentage discount of a rural rate does not apply to the urban rate, only the term or volume requirement. For example, a rural carrier might have a 30% discount for a 5-year term, while the comparison urban provider has only a 20% discount for a 5-year term. The urban rate would use the 20% discount. The reverse is also true if the rural carrier offers a 20% discounted 5-year term, but the urban 5-year rate has a 30% discount.
  • Using the rate bands above, a symmetrical fractional T-1 service operating at an advertised speed of 144 kbps would be considered functionally similar to a symmetrical DSL (digital subscriber line) transmission service with an advertised symmetrical speed of 256 kbps.

If you have questions about the similarities between rural and urban circuits, please contact USAC's Customer Service Support Center at 1-800-229-5476.

Documentation must be submitted to USAC if you are providing your own urban rate. Documentation may include tariff pages, contracts, a letter on company letterhead from the urban service provider, rate pricing information printed from the urban service provider's website, or similar documentation showing how the urban rate was obtained. Tariff pages should include annotations and carrier identification. Please include only summary pages, if possible. Documentation should identify the type of service and bandwidth and the urban area. The date on the documentation should indicate that the rate is provided in the current funding year.

For purposes of urban rate calculation, assume that the urban circuit is equal to the Standard Urban Distance (SUD, see Glossary of Terms) of the HCP's state. USAC must be able to verify the urban service provider, the type of service, and use of the Standard Urban Distance from the documentation provided. If you have reason to believe that the service provider in the urban location would construct the urban rate differently, contact USAC's Customer Service Support Center at 1-800-229-5476.


Last modified on 2/19/2008