392
Opinion of the Court
on a rational basis which network elements must be made available, taking into account the objectives of the Act and giving some substance to the "necessary" and "impair" requirements. The latter is not achieved by disregarding entirely the availability of elements outside the network, and by regarding any "increased cost or decreased service quality" as establishing a "necessity" and an "impair[ment]" of the ability to "provide . . . services."
The Commission generally applied the above described methodology as it considered the various network elements seriatim. See id., ¶¶ 388-393, 419-420, 447, 481-482, 490- 491, 497-499, 521-522, 539-540. Though some of these sections contain statements suggesting that the Commission's action might be supported by a higher standard, see, e. g., id., ¶¶ 521-522, no other standard is consistently applied and we must assume that the Commission's expansive methodology governed throughout. Because the Commission has not interpreted the terms of the statute in a reasonable fashion, we must vacate 47 CFR § 51.319 (1997).
C
The incumbent LECs also renew their challenge to the "all elements" rule, which allows competitors to provide local phone service relying solely on the elements in an incumbent's network. See First Report & Order ¶¶ 328-340. This issue may be largely academic in light of our disposition of Rule 319. If the FCC on remand makes fewer network elements unconditionally available through the unbundling requirement, an entrant will no longer be able to lease every component of the network. But whether a requesting carrier can access the incumbent's network in whole or in part, we think that the Commission 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. We agree with the Court of Ap-
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