United States Telephone Association v. Federal Communications Commission and United States of America, At&t Corporation, Intervenors

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge STEPHEN F. WILLIAMS.

STEPHEN F. WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge:

Long-distance telephone traffic is ordinarily transmitted by a local exchange carrier (“LEC”) from its origin to a long- distance carrier (or interexchange carrier or “IXC”). The IXC carries the traffic to its region of destination and hands it off to the LEC there. The IXC charges the customer for the call and pays “access charges” to the LECs at either end. In a 1997 rulemaking the Federal Communications Commission amended its methodology for limiting these charges, as applied to the largest…