When it comes to taxes on traditional wire-line telephones, Providence ranks below the national average in a survey of about 60 large and small U.S. cities released last summer by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University.

The survey found that a typical monthly phone bill of a Providence telephone customer included $6.37 in taxes, accounting for about 14 percent of the total.

The national average, according to the study, was $8.32, or about 17 percent of the total bill.

The city with the highest rate was Los Angeles, where customers paid $14.99, or 30.4 percent of their typical monthly bill, in taxes. The lowest was found in Billings, Mont., which was $4.32, or 8.8 percent of the monthly bill.

The survey was commissioned by The Heartland Institute, based in Chicago, which frequently promotes libertarian or free-market points of view in health care, environmental protection and education.

The survey was based on data collected in the fall of 2006 and released in May of last year. It looked only at state capitals and a handful of other cities.

The survey did not take into account one of the biggest fees on local phone bills: the Federal Subscriber Line Charge.

That charge, which is capped by the Federal Communications Commission at $6.50 a month for a single line, is to help local telephone companies recover some of the costs of the lines connected to a customer’s home or business.

Although telephone companies frequently call it a “federal” charge, the FCC said that federal regulators cap the fee, but the money itself goes directly to the local telephone companies, not to the federal government.

If the survey had included that fee, it may have resulted in different rankings since local telephone companies may charge less than the cap.

In Rhode Island, the charges for local service for a single phone line provided by Verizon in Providence are: $19.76 for unlimited local calling; $6.40 for Federal Subscriber Line Charge; 65 cents for the Federal Universal Service Fee; $1 for the state’s E-911 charge; 9 cents for dual-party relay charge (pays for the relay center for the hearing and speech impaired); 26 cents for the school and library fund; $1.88 in Rhode Island state sales tax; and 78 cents in federal excise taxes.

The total bill is $30.82.

Of that amount, 36 percent goes toward taxes and fees and the remaining 64 percent goes toward local phone service.

In Massachusetts, the charges for local service for a single phone line provided by Verizon are: $19.64 for unlimited local calling; $6.40 for Federal Subscriber Line Charge; 65 cents for the Federal Universal Service Fee; 75 cents for E-911; $1.33 in state sales tax; and 78 cents in federal excise taxes.

The total bill is $29.55.

Of that amount, 34 percent goes toward taxes and fees and the remaining 66 percent goes toward local phone service.