394
Opinion of the Court
subsidies be phased out, so whatever possibility of arbitrage remains will be only temporary. In any event, we cannot say that Rule 315(b) unreasonably interprets the statute.
Section 251(c)(3) establishes:
"The duty to provide, to any requesting telecommunications carrier for the provision of a telecommunications service, nondiscriminatory access to network elements on an unbundled basis at any technically feasible point on rates, terms, and conditions that are just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement and the requirements of this section and section 252 . . . . An incumbent local exchange carrier shall provide such unbundled network elements in a manner that allows requesting carriers to combine such elements in order to provide such telecommunications service."
Because this provision requires elements to be provided in a manner that "allows requesting carriers to combine" them, incumbents say that it contemplates the leasing of network elements in discrete pieces. It was entirely reasonable for the Commission to find that the text does not command this conclusion. It forbids incumbents to sabotage network elements that are provided in discrete pieces, and thus assuredly contemplates that elements may be requested and provided in this form (which the Commission's rules do not prohibit). But it does not say, or even remotely imply, that elements must be provided only in this fashion and never in combined form. Nor are we persuaded by the incumbents' insistence that the phrase "on an unbundle[d] basis" in § 251(c)(3) means "physically separated." The dictionary definition of "unbundle[d]" (and the only definition given, we might add) matches the FCC's interpretation of the word: "to give separate prices for equipment and supporting services." Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary 1283 (1988).
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