(a) If a rural health care provider requests support for an eligible service to be funded from the Telecommunications Program that is to be provided over a distance that is less than or equal to the ``standard urban distance,'' as defined in paragraph (c) of this section, for the state in which it is located, the ``urban rate'' for that service shall be a rate no higher than the highest tariffed or publicly-available rate charged to a commercial customer for a functionally similar service in any city with a population of 50,000 or more in that state, calculated as if it were provided between two points within the city.
(b) If a rural health care provider requests an eligible service to be provided over a distance that is greater than the ``standard urban distance,'' as defined in paragraph (c) of this section, for the state in which it is located, the urban rate for that service shall be a rate no higher than the highest tariffed or publicly-available rate charged to a commercial customer for a functionally similar service provided over the standard urban distance in any city with a population of 50,000 or more in that state, calculated as if the service were provided between two points within the city.
(c) The ``standard urban distance'' for a state is the average of the longest diameters of all cities with a population of 50,000 or more within the state.
(d) The Administrator shall calculate the ``standard urban distance'' and shall post the ``standard urban distance'' and the maximum supported distance for each state on its website. [62 FR 32948, June 17, 1997, as amended at 63 FR 2131, Jan. 13, 1998; 63 FR 70572, Dec. 21, 1998; 68 FR 74502, Dec. 24, 2003; 78 FR 13983, Mar. 1, 2013]