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systems, and vertical switching functions such as caller I. D., call forwarding, and call waiting within the features and services that must be provided to competitors. Pp. 386-387.
(b) However, since the FCC did not adequately consider the § 251(d)(2) "necessary and impair" standards when it gave requesting carriers blanket access to network elements, Rule 319 is vacated. The Rule implicitly regards the "necessary" standard as having been met regardless of whether carriers can obtain requested proprietary elements from a source other than the incumbent, and regards the "impairment" standard as having been met if an incumbent's failure to provide access to a network element would decrease the quality, or increase the cost, of the service a requesting carrier seeks to offer, compared with providing that service over other unbundled elements in the incumbent LEC's network. The FCC cannot, consistent with the statute, blind itself to the availability of elements outside the incumbent's network. In addition, the FCC's assumption that any increase in cost (or decrease in quality) imposed by denial of a network element renders access to that element "necessary," and causes the failure to provide that element to "impair" the entrant's ability to furnish its desired services, is simply not in accord with the ordinary and fair meaning of those terms. Section 251(d)(2) requires the FCC to determine on a rational basis which network elements must be made available, taking into account the 1996 Act's objectives and giving some substance to the "necessary" and "im-pair" requirements. Pp. 387-392.
(c) The FCC reasonably omitted a facilities-ownership requirement. The 1996 Act imposes no such limitation; if anything, it suggests the opposite, by requiring in § 251(c)(3) that incumbents provide access to "any" requesting carrier. Pp. 392-393.
(d) Rule 315(b), which forbids incumbents to separate already-combined network elements before leasing them to competitors, reasonably interprets § 251(c)(3), which establishes the duty to provide access to network elements on nondiscriminatory rates, terms, and conditions and in a manner that allows requesting carriers to combine such elements. That section forbids incumbents to sabotage elements that are provided in discrete pieces, but it does not say, or even remotely imply, that elements must be provided in that fashion. Pp. 393-395.
3. Because the "pick and choose" rule tracks the pertinent language in § 252(i) almost exactly, it is not only a reasonable interpretation of that section, it is the most readily apparent. Pp. 395-397.
Nos. 97-826 (first judgment), 97-829 (first judgment), 97-830, 97-831 (first judgment), 97-1075, 97-1087, 97-1099, and 97-1141, 120 F. 3d 753, reversed in part, affirmed in part, and remanded; Nos. 97-826, 97-829,
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