Cite as: 535 U. S. 467 (2002)
Opinion of Breyer, J.
ments"); cf. id., at 416-417 (Breyer, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (stating that the "necessary" and "im-pair" provision's object is to require access to, and thereby force sharing of, those elements of an incumbent's system that would prove, to a significant degree, economically wasteful to duplicate).
To put the matter more concretely, imagine that a communications firm—a potential new entrant—wishes to sell voice, data, text, pictures, entertainment, or other communications services, perhaps in competition with the incumbent. That firm must decide how its service will reach a customer inside a house or office. Should the firm (1) run its own new cable into the house? (2) run wires through an already-existing electricity conduit? (3) communicate without wires, say, by wireless or one-way or two-way satellite? (4) or use the incumbent's pair of twisted copper telephone service wires already in place? If the potential new entrant claims that all but the last of these possibilities are impractical or far too expensive—that using existing telephone wires is far cheaper (in terms of real resources expended) than the alter-natives—then the new entrant is claiming that the incumbent's wires are a kind of "bridge" to which it must have access. And it may ask the regulator to make its new entry feasible by requiring the incumbent to permit it to use that "element" at a reasonable price.
Fourth, the Commission has described the Act's goals as including promotion of nonwasteful competition. The preamble to the Commission's price regulations describes their statutorily based aim as "giv[ing] appropriate signals to producers and consumers and ensur[ing] efficient entry and utilization of the telecommunications infrastructure." Order ¶ 630 (emphasis added). The Commission also says that "the prices that potential entrants pay for these elements should reflect forward-looking economic costs in order to encourage efficient levels of investment and entry." Id.,
¶ 672 (emphasis added). And it adds that "Congress spe-
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