Cite as: 535 U. S. 467 (2002)
Opinion of Breyer, J.
See In re Implementation of Local Competition Provisions in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 11 FCC Rcd. 15499, 15848-15849, ¶ 685 (1996) (hereinafter Order) (describing TELRIC as "based on costs that assume that wire centers will be placed at the incumbent LEC's current wire center locations, but that the reconstructed local network will employ the most efficient technology for reasonably foreseeable capacity requirements").
An example will help explain the system as I understand it. Imagine an incumbent local telephone company's major switching center, say, in downtown Chicago, from which cables and wires run through conduits or along poles to subsidiary switching equipment, other electronic equipment, and eventually to end-user equipment, such as telephone handsets, computer modems, or fax machines located in office buildings or private residences. A new competitor, whom the law entitles to use an "element" of the incumbent firm's system, asks for use of such an "element," say, a single five-block portion of this system, thereby obtaining access to 20 downtown office buildings. Under the Commission's TELRIC, the incumbent's "cost" (upon which "rates" must be based) equals not the real resources that the Chicago incumbent must spend to provide the five-block "element" demanded, but the resources that a hypothetical perfectly efficient new supplier would spend were that supplier rebuilding the entire downtown Chicago system, other than the local wire center, from scratch. This latter figure, of course, might be very different from any incumbent's actual costs.
As a reviewing Court, we must determine, among other things, whether the Commission has " 'abuse[d]' " its statutorily delegated " 'discretion' " to create implementing rules. Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Assn. of United States, Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co., 463 U. S. 29, 41 (1983) (quoting Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U. S. C. § 706(2)(A)). In doing so, we must assume that Congress intended to grant
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