NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - If you think your cable bill's been going up even faster than it used to, you're right.

Rates for programming services and equipment rose an average 8.2 percent over the 12 months ended July 1, 2002, to $40.11 a month from $37.06, a study showed Tuesday.

This compares with a five-year compound annual rate of increase of 7.1% from July 1997 to July 2002, the Federal Communications Commission's annual report on cable industry prices shows.

And if you are living in an area served by only one cable operator, you're more likely to pay a steeper price for programming, or $40.26 for service, compared with $37.84 in an area where there are two or more service providers.

"The cable industry has risen to new heights in their apparent willingness and ability to gouge the American consumer," Sen. John McCain said in a statement. "Cable rates [have] increased an unbelievable five-and-a-half times faster than inflation."

The average number of channels grew 6.3 percent to nearly 63 from 59, the FCC said. Per channel, cable costs increased to about 66.4 cents from 65.6 cents, the agency said.

Calculating cable costs by the channel brings the price increase down to 1.2 percent for 2002, slightly less than the 1.5 percent consumer price index increase, the agency said.