494
Opinion of the Court
thority to control the methodology of state commissions setting the rates incumbent local-exchange carriers could charge entrants for network elements, 47 CFR § 51.505(b)(1) (1997). Iowa Utilities Bd. v. FCC, supra, at 800. The Eighth Circuit also held that the FCC misconstrued the plain language of § 251(c)(3) in implementing a set of "combination" rules, 47 CFR §§ 51.315(b)-(f) (1997), the most important of which provided that "an incumbent LEC shall not separate requested network elements that the incumbent LEC currently combines," § 51.315(b). 120 F. 3d, at 813. On the other hand, the Court of Appeals accepted the FCC's view that the Act required no threshold ownership of facilities by a requesting carrier, First Report and Order ¶¶ 328-340, and upheld Rule 319, 47 CFR § 51.319 (1997), which read "net-work elements" broadly, to require incumbent carriers to provide not only equipment but also services and functions, such as operations support systems (e. g., billing databases), § 51.319(f)(1), operator services and directory assistance, § 51.319(g), and vertical switching features like call-waiting and caller I. D., First Report and Order ¶¶ 263, 413. 120 F. 3d, at 808-810.
This Court affirmed in part and in larger part reversed. AT&T Corp. v. Iowa Utilities Bd., 525 U. S., at 397. We reversed in upholding the FCC's jurisdiction to "design a pricing methodology" to bind state ratemaking commissions, id., at 385, as well as one of the FCC's combination rules, Rule 315(b), barring incumbents from separating currently combined network elements when furnishing them to entrants that request them in a combined form, id., at 395. We also reversed in striking down Rule 319, holding that its provision for blanket access to network elements was inconsistent with the "necessary" and "impair" standards of 47 U. S. C. § 251(d)(2), 525 U. S., at 392. We affirmed the Eighth Circuit, however, in upholding the FCC's broad definition of network elements to be provided, id., at 387, and
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