Cite as: 525 U. S. 366 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
unbundled access and "pick and choose" negotiation are consistent with the statute.
I
Until the 1990's, local phone service was thought to be a natural monopoly. States typically granted an exclusive franchise in each local service area to a local exchange carrier (LEC), which owned, among other things, the local loops (wires connecting telephones to switches), the switches (equipment directing calls to their destinations), and the transport trunks (wires carrying calls between switches) that constitute a local exchange network. Technological advances, however, have made competition among multiple providers of local service seem possible, and Congress recently ended the longstanding regime of state-sanctioned monopolies.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act or Act), Pub. L. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56, fundamentally restructures local telephone markets. States may no longer enforce laws that impede competition, and incumbent LECs are subject to a host of duties intended to facilitate market entry. Foremost among these duties is the LEC's obligation under 47 U. S. C. § 251(c) (1994 ed., Supp. II) to share its network with competitors. Under this provision, a requesting carrier can obtain access to an incumbent's network in three ways: It can purchase local telephone services at wholesale rates for resale to end users; it can lease elements of the incumbent's network "on an unbundled basis"; and it can interconnect its own facilities with the incumbent's network.1 When an en-1 Title 47 U. S. C. § 251(c) (1994 ed., Supp. II) provides as follows: "Additional Obligations of Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers
"In addition to the duties contained in subsection (b) of this section, each incumbent local exchange carrier has the following duties:
"(1) Duty to Negotiate "The duty to negotiate in good faith in accordance with section 252 of this title the particular terms and conditions of agreements to fulfill the
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