536
Opinion of the Court
Thus, the incumbents are wrong to claim that the restriction to "technical feasibility" places only minimal limits on the duty to combine, since the First Report and Order makes it clear that what is "technically feasible" does not mean merely what is "economically reasonable," id., ¶ 199, or what is simply practical or possible in an engineering sense, see id., ¶¶ 196-198. The limitation is meant to preserve "network reliability and security," id., ¶ 296, n. 622, and a combination is not technically feasible if it impedes an incumbent carrier's ability "to retain responsibility for the management, control, and performance of its own network," id., ¶ 203.
This demanding sense of "technical feasibility," as a condition protecting the incumbent's ability to control the performance of its own network, is in accord with what we said in Iowa Utilities Bd. There, for example, we reinstated the Commission's "pick and choose" rule 43 in part because the duty to provide network elements on matching terms to all comers did not arise when it was "not technically feasible," § 51.809(b)(2). 525 U. S., at 396. If "technically feasible" meant what is merely possible, it would have been no limitation at all.
The two substantive rules each have additional features that are consistent with the purposes of § 251(c)(3). Rule 315(c), to the extent that it raises a duty to combine what is "ordinarily combined," neatly complements the facially similar Rule 315(b), upheld in Iowa Utilities Bd., id., at 395, forbidding incumbents to separate currently combined network elements when the entrant requests them in a combined form. If the latter were the only rule, an incumbent
43 "An incumbent LEC shall make available without unreasonable delay to any requesting telecommunications carrier any individual interconnection, service, or network element arrangement contained in any agreement to which it is a party that is approved by a state commission pursuant to section 252 of the Act, upon the same rates, terms, and conditions as those provided in the agreement." 47 CFR § 51.809(a) (1997).
Page: Index Previous 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007