396
Opinion of the Court
from an existing agreement, they say, should be required to accept all the terms in the agreement.
Although the latter proposition seems eminently fair, it is hard to declare the FCC's rule unlawful when it tracks the pertinent statutory language almost exactly. Title 47 U. S. C. § 252(i) (1994 ed., Supp. II) provides:
"A local exchange carrier shall make available any interconnection, service, or network element provided under an agreement approved under this section to which it is a party to any other requesting telecommunications carrier upon the same terms and conditions as those provided in the agreement."
The FCC's interpretation is not only reasonable, it is the most readily apparent. Moreover, in some respects the rule is more generous to incumbent LECs than § 252(i) itself. It exempts incumbents who can prove to the state commission that providing a particular interconnection service or network element to a requesting carrier is either (1) more costly than providing it to the original carrier, or (2) technically infeasible. 47 CFR § 51.809(b) (1997). And it limits the amount of time during which negotiated agreements are open to requests under this section. § 51.809(c). The Commission has said that an incumbent LEC can require a requesting carrier to accept all terms that it can prove are "legitimately related" to the desired term. First Report & Order ¶ 1315. Section 252(i) certainly demands no more than that. And whether the Commission's approach will significantly impede negotiations (by making it impossible for favorable interconnection-service or network-element terms to be traded off against unrelated provisions) is a matter eminently within the expertise of the Commission and eminently beyond our ken. We reverse the Eighth Circuit and reinstate the rule.
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