366
OCTOBER TERM, 1998
Syllabus
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the eighth circuit
No. 97-826. Argued October 13, 1998—Decided January 25, 1999*
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act) fundamentally restructures local telephone markets, ending the monopolies that States historically granted to local exchange carriers (LECs) and subjecting incumbent LECs to a host of duties intended to facilitate market entry, including the obligation under 47 U. S. C. § 251(c) to share their networks with competitors. A requesting carrier can obtain such shared access by purchasing local telephone services at wholesale rates for resale to end users, by leasing elements of the incumbent's network "on an unbundled basis," and by interconnecting its own facilities with the incumbent's network. After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued regulations implementing the 1996 Act's local-competition provisions, incumbent LECs and state commissions filed numerous challenges, which were consolidated in the Eighth Circuit. Among other things, that court held that the FCC lacked jurisdiction to promulgate its rules regarding pricing, dialing parity, exemptions for rural LECs, the proper procedure for resolving local-competition disputes, and state review of pre-1996 interconnection agreements; that, in specifying the network elements available to requesting carriers under Rule 319, the FCC reasonably implemented the 1996 Act's requirement that it consider whether access to proprietary elements was "necessary" and whether lack of access to nonproprietary elements would "impair" an
*Together with AT&T Corp. et al. v. California et al. (see this Court's Rule 12.4), No. 97-829, MCI Telecommunications Corp. v. Iowa Utilities Board et al., MCI Telecommunications Corp. v. California et al. (see this Court's Rule 12.4), No. 97-830, Association for Local Telecommunications Services et al. v. Iowa Utilities Board et al., No. 97-831, Federal Communications Commission et al. v. Iowa Utilities Board et al., Federal Communications Commission et al. v. California et al. (see this Court's Rule 12.4), No. 97-1075, Ameritech Corp. et al. v. Federal Communications Commission et al., No. 97-1087, GTE Midwest Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission et al., No. 97-1099, U S WEST, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission et al., and No. 97-1141, Southern New England Telephone Co. et al. v. Federal Communications Commission et al., also on certiorari to the same court.
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