Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. California Public Utilities Commission

BEA, Circuit Judge:

This case involves the balance the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (“the Act”) strikes between providing newer competitors access to previously monopolistic telecommunications markets, on the one hand, and encouraging and protecting infrastruc ture investments of older, incumbent telecommunications providers on the other. We must interpret two provisions of the Act that impose requirements on older, incumbent local exchange carriers (“incumbent LECs”) — like appellant AT & T — to lease certain components of their existing infrastructure to rival newer, competitive carriers…