FOR THE
Argued
No. 01-1371
Verizon Telephone
Companies, et al.,
Petitioners
v.
Federal
Communications Commission and
Respondents
WorldCom Inc., et
al.,
Intervenors
Consolidated with
01-1379
On Petitions for
Review of an Order of the
Federal
Communications Commission
Mark L. Evans
argued the cause for petitioners. With
him on the briefs were Michael K. Kellogg, Scott K. Attaway, David C.
Frederick, Michael E. Glover, Edward Shakin, Joseph DiBella, Richard M.
Sbaratta, James D. Ellis, Jeffrey B. Thomas and Gary L. Phillips. Roger K. Toppins entered an appearance.
John Rogovin,
Deputy General Counsel, Federal Communications Commission, argued the cause for
respondents. With him on the brief were
John E. Ingle, Deputy Associate General Counsel, Laurence N. Bourne and Rodger
D. Citron, Counsel, Catherine G. O'Sullivan and Nancy C. Garrison, Attorneys,
U.S. Department of Justice.
David W.
Carpenter argued the cause for intervenors American Telephone and Telegraph
Company, et al. With him on the brief
were Peter D. Keisler, James P. Young, Mark C. Rosenblum, Mark D. Schneider,
John E. Benedict, H. Richard Juhnke, Charles C. Hunter, Catherine M. Hannan,
Jonathan Jacob Nadler, Jason Oxman, Thomas F. O'Neil III, William Single IV,
Teresa K. Gaugler, Rodney L. Joyce, Mary C. Albert and Morton J. Posner. David L.
Lawson and Paul J. Zidlicky entered appearances.
Before: Ginsburg, Chief Judge, and Randolph and
Tatel, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the
Court filed by Circuit Judge Tatel.
Tatel, Circuit Judge: Section 251(c)(6) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires incumbent local exchange carriers to provide competitive local exchange carriers with space for the "physical collocation of equipment necessary for interconnection or access to unbundled network elements at [their] premises." Responding to our opinion in GTE Service Corporation v. FCC, which vacated the Federal Communication Commission's first order implementing section 251(c)(6) "insofar as it embrace[d] unduly broad definitions of 'necessary' and 'physical collocation,' " the Commission issued a new order, which petitioners now challenge. They argue that (1) the Commission's standard for collocatable equipment remains overly broad because it permits collocation of any equipment "necessary for interconnection or access" whether or not it is "necessary" to place such equipment "at the premises"; (2) the Commission unlawfully allowed the placement of switching and routing equipment, as well as equipment containing multiple functions only some of which are "necessary" for interconnection or access to network elements; (3) the Commission lacks authority to order incumbents to physically connect collocating competitive local exchange carriers to each other; and (4) the Commission's space assignment rules are unlawful. Finding petitioners' claims either meritless or waived, we deny the petitions.
I.
In order to
foster competition for local telephone services, Congress, in the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, authorized competitive local exchange carriers
(CLECs) to place certain equipment within the premises of incumbent local
exchange carriers (ILECs) so that CLECs could gain access to ILECs'
networks. Specifically, section
251(c)(6) requires ILECs to "provide, on rates, terms, and conditions that
are just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory, for physical collocation of equipment
necessary for interconnection or access to unbundled network elements at the
premises of the local exchange carrier."
47 U.S.C. § 251(c)(6). The
statute provides certain exceptions (not here relevant) for instances where an
ILEC can demonstrate to a state commission that "physical collocation is
not practical for technical reasons or because of space limitations."
Based on this
statutory authorization, the Commission issued an order entitled Deployment of
Wireline Services Offering Advanced Telecommunications Capability, 14 F.C.C.
Rcd. 4761 (1999), ("Collocation Order"), in which it outlined the
types of equipment that may be collocated, established standards for the
assignment of space within the ILEC's facilities, and fashioned rules allocating
the initial costs of preparing collocation space. A detailed summary of this Collocation Order
appears in our decision in GTE Service Corporation v. FCC, 205 F.3d 416, 420
(D.C. Cir. 2000). In that case, although
we affirmed the Commission's cost allocation rule, we found defective its
standards for the types of equipment collocatable and its space assignment
rules. The flaws in the Commission's
prior ruling fell into three categories, which we outline below together with
the Commission's responses on remand.
See Deployment of Wireline Services Offering Advanced Telecommunications
Capability, 16 F.C.C. Rcd. 15,435 (2001) ("Remand Order").
Equipment
"necessary" for interconnection or access
In GTE, we found
"impermissibly broad," 205 F.3d at 424, the Commission's
interpretation of the phrase "necessary for interconnection or
access," which allowed collocation of any equipment " 'used or
useful' for either interconnection or access to unbundled network elements,
regardless of other functionalities inherent in such equipment,"
Collocation Order p 28. The Commission's
interpretation, we observed, "appear[ed] to permit competitors to
collocate equipment that may do more than what is required to achieve
interconnection or access." GTE,
205 F.3d at 423.
Responding to this criticism, the
Commission now deems equipment "necessary" for purposes of section
251(c)(6) only "if an inability to deploy that equipment would, as a
practical, economic, or operational matter, preclude the requesting carrier
from obtaining interconnection or access to unbundled network
elements." Remand Order p 21. In crafting this new standard, the Commission
rejected Verizon's argument that "necessary" modifies the phrase
"physical collocation," reasoning that "such a reading would
wrongly place [the] focus on whether 'collocation' of the equipment is
necessary, ... as opposed to whether the equipment itself, regardless of its
location in the network, is necessary for interconnection [or] access to
unbundled network elements." Remand
Order p 25 (emphasis added) (internal quotation marks omitted).
In light of its
new standard, the Commission also reexam-ined its treatment of switching and
routing equipment. In the Collocation
Order, the Commission expressly declined to require incumbents to collocate
"equipment used exclusively for switching," finding insufficient
support in the record for such a requirement.
Collocation Order p 30. At the
same time, however, the Commission warned that it might "explore requiring
such collocation in the future," id.--precisely what it did on remand from
GTE. Benefitting from a "greatly
expanded record ... reflect[ing] ... parties' several years of experience with
the unbundled network access regime," the Commission reversed course,
Remand Order p 51, concluding that smaller, more modern switching and routing
equipment may be entitled to collocation because it was "necessary"
to "access an unbundled local loop's theoretical capability of providing a
telecommunications service," id. p 46.
The Commission declined to allow collocation of older, traditional
circuit switches, finding them unnecessary in light of the availability of
smaller, more modern switches.
With regard to
multi-functional equipment--i.e., "equipment that combines functions that
meet [the] equipment standard with functions that would not meet that standard
as stand-alone functions," Remand Order p 32--the Commission now allows
collocation if (1) the "primary purpose and function ... as the ...
carrier seeks to deploy" the equipment are to provide interconnection or
access to unbundled network elements;
(2) any additional functions have a "logical nexus" to that
purpose; and (3) the additional
functions do not "affect the demand on the incumbent's space and other
resources so significantly as to increase the relative burden on the
incumbent's property interests," id. pp 36-40.
"Cross-connect"
requirement
In GTE, we
vacated the Commission's decision to allow CLECs to connect their equipment
directly to that of other collocating carriers "subject only to the same
reasonable safety requirements that the [ILEC] imposes on its own
equipment." Collocation Order p
33. The "obvious problem" with
this so-called cross-connect requirement, we thought, was that it
"impose[d] an obligation on [I]LECs that ha[d] no apparent basis in [a]
statute [that] focuse[s] solely on connecting new competitors to [I]LECs'
networks." GTE, 205 F.3d at
423. In its Remand Order, the Commission
elected to maintain the cross-connect requirement, but in a modified form. Instead of allowing CLECs to provision (i.e.,
install and maintain) their own cross-connects, the Commission now requires
ILECs to provision cross-connects upon request.
Remand Order p 62. The Commission
imposed that requirement because "[i]f an incumbent ... refuses to
provision cross-connects between [CLECs] collocated at the incumbent's
premises, the incumbent would be the only LEC that could interconnect with all
or even any of the [CLECs] collocated at a common, centralized point--the
central office."
each [CLEC] would have to carry its own telecommunications traffic into its collocation space and then ... have the incumbent LEC transport that traffic over incumbent-owned facilities to an interconnection point outside the incumbent's premises. From [there], the other [CLEC] would likely then carry the traffic back to its own collocation space in the same central office to be transported through the [CLEC's] network.
"severely restrict the viability of competitive transport."
According to the
Commission, three separate provisions of the Communications Act support the new
cross-connect requirement. First, the
Commission found the cross-connect requirement authorized under section 201(a),
which requires a common carrier:
to furnish such communication service upon reasonable request
therefor; and, in accordance with the
orders of the Commission, in cases where the Commission, after opportunity for
hearing, finds such action necessary or desirable in the public interest, to
establish physical connections with other carriers....
47 U.S.C. § 201.
Second, an incumbent's "refusal to provision cross-connects,"
the Commission concluded, was an "unjust and unreasonable practice in
connection with existing services," Remand Order p 72, thus violating
section 201(b)'s requirement that all "[c]harges, practices,
classifications, and regulations for and in connection with such communication
service ... be just and reasonable."
47 U.S.C. § 201(b). Finally,
because it felt ILECs would be operating in an "unreasonable and
discriminatory manner if [they] refused to provide cross-connects between
collocators," Remand Order p 79, the Commission found the new
cross-connect requirement authorized by section 251(c)(6)'s requirement of
collocation on such "terms and conditions" as are "just,
reasonable, and nondiscriminatory," 47 U.S.C. § 251(c)(6). Arguing that GTE does not foreclose this
result, the Commission pointed out that GTE merely rejects the notion that cross-connects
were collocatable equipment and never addresses whether the Commission
"could require incumbent ... provisioned cross-connects pursuant to the
'rates, terms, and conditions' clause of section 251(c)(6)." Remand Order p 81.
Space assignment
rules
Third and
finally, in GTE, we vacated the Commission's space assignment rules. By banning ILECs from requiring competitors
to use separate entrances, or isolated rooms or floors, those rules left
"competitors ... free to pick and choose preferred space on the LECs'
premises, subject only to technical feasibility." GTE, 205 F.3d at 426. Modifying the space assignment rules in
response to GTE, the Commission gave ILECs "ultimate responsibility"
for placement of equipment. Remand Order
p 90. An ILEC may also provide for the
physical segregation of collocated equipment "if the proposed separated
space is: (a) available in the same or a
shorter time frame as non-separated space;
(b) at a cost not materially higher than the cost of non-separated
space; and (c) is comparable, from a
technical and engineering stand-point, to non-separated space." Remand Order p 102. Under the Remand Order, moreover, incumbents
may require segregated spaces only where "legitimate security concerns, or
operational constraints unrelated to the incumbent's ... competitive concerns,
warrant them."
II.
Claiming the
Commission "failed to heed this Court's mandate" in GTE, Pet'rs'
Opening Br. at 4, petitioner Verizon Communications, Inc., together with
BellSouth Corporation and SBC Communications, Inc. (throughout this opinion we
shall refer to petitioners as "Verizon") now petition for review. Verizon argues that (1) the Commission's new
reading of section 251(c)(6) is overly broad because it allows for the
collocation of equipment "at the premises" of ILECs even if
"interconnection or access" could be obtained through the use of
off-site equipment, id. at 15 (internal quotation marks omitted); (2) the Commission acted unlawfully by
allowing CLECs to collocate switching or routing equipment and by permitting
CLECs to collocate multifunctional equipment without demonstrating that each
function is "necessary for interconnection or access," id. at
16; (3) the Commission has no authority
to order carrier-to-carrier cross-connects;
and (4) the new space assignment rules "grant competitors unwarranted
rights to control the specific location of their equipment within the incumbent's
premises," id. at 17. Intervening
in support of the Commission are fourteen other telecommunications companies,
led by AT&T Corporation.
The familiar
standard established by Chevron
We begin with
Verizon's claim that the phrase "equipment necessary for interconnection
or access to unbundled network elements at the premises of the local exchange
carrier," 47 U.S.C. § 251(c)(6), means that CLECs may not place equipment
on an ILEC's premises unless an off-site location is infeasible. According to Verizon, the Commission's
interpretation, which focuses on whether the equipment is necessary for
interconnection or access "regardless of its location in the
network," Remand Order p 25, "ignore[s] the pivotal phrase at the end
of the sentence, which makes clear that equipment must be necessary ... at the
premises of the local exchange carrier," Pet'rs' Opening Br. at 20. The only sensible interpretation of this
language, Verizon argues, is that "the adjective 'necessary' "
"relates" to "both components of the compound prepositional
phrase 'for interconnection or access ... at the premises of the local exchange
carrier.' " Pet'rs' Reply
As the Commission
points out, on remand from GTE, Verizon made an entirely different textual
argument, namely, that the word "necessary" modifies "physical
collocation," not "equipment."
See Comments of the Verizon Telephone Companies,
Conceding that it
never presented to the Commission the precise textual argument it raises now,
Verizon argues that "every facet of an argument" need not be
presented to the Commission as long as the "basic challenge to a
Commission policy was reasonably flagged."
Pet'rs' Reply
We have expressed
our concern about the effect on federal "agencies' rightful role in
statutory construction under the Chevron framework" when petitioners fail
"to present statutory challenges to ... agencies for initial
resolution." Linemaster Switch
Corp. v. EPA, 938 F.2d 1299, 1309 (D.C. Cir. 1991). This case implicates that concern. Chevron's second step requires that we defer
to an agency's interpretation of ambiguous statutory provisions such as section
251(c)(6). By failing to raise before
the Commission the textual argument it makes now, Verizon has deprived us of
the Commission's expert judgment, informed by the pertinent policy considerations,
as to the relationship between the word "necessary" and the phrase
"at the premises." Were we to
reject the Commission's waiver argument, we would have to undertake the very
sort of freewheeling policy inquiry that Chevron deference was crafted to
avoid. This we may not do.
Our conclusion
that Verizon has waived its primary statutory claim largely moots its challenge
to the Commission's decision to allow collocation of switches and routers in
certain instances, as Verizon's arguments depend heavily on its assertion that
CLECs could feasibly locate such equipment off-premises. Verizon, however, makes an additional
argument that focuses more precisely on the Commission's reasoning with respect
to switches and routers rather than the general standard for equipment entitled
to collocation. The Commission
determined that without a
switch[ ] or router, the local loop is merely a transmission
medium theoretically capable of carrying telecommunications traffic. To access an unbundled local loop's
theoretical capability of providing a telecommunications service, i.e., of
accommodating the transmission of information between or among points specified
by the user, a requesting carrier must, as a practical, economic and
operational matter, be able to switch or route traffic to or from that loop.
Remand Order p 46 (internal quotation marks omitted). According to Verizon, this reasoning
"has no apparent stopping point:
Every piece of equipment in a competitor's network is arguably necessary
to complete a call and thereby 'to access an unbundled local loop's theoretical
capability of providing telecommunications service.' " Pet'rs' Opening Br. at 24. Although acknowledging the Commission's
ruling that equipment used for "call-related databases, information
services, or operations support" (i.e., back office equipment) "may
not be collocated," Pet'rs'
To begin with, we
think it inaccurate to say that the Commission's reasoning has no limiting
principle. Putting aside the question of
whether a call-related database is "necessary" to access the
functions of a local loop, Verizon gives us no reason to believe that the
Commission's standard fails coherently to exclude "operations support
system equipment" and other "troubleshooting, billing or
record-keeping" equipment. Pet'rs'
Reply at 12. Moreover, even with respect
to call-related databases, given the heavy deference owed, the distinctions
drawn by the Commission easily withstand scrutiny. The Commission relied on the fact that
switching and routing equipment activates those capabilities of a loop that
allow the loop to carry calls. That is
not the case with call-related databases, which merely allow the switch to
identify which local loop to activate but do not actually activate the loop's
capabilities themselves.
Verizon next
challenges the Commission's decision to allow collocation of multifunctional
equipment in certain circumstances.
According to Verizon, "that view of the Commission's statutory
authority is squarely foreclosed by this Court's holding in GTE that the
statute does not permit competitors to smuggle unnecessary functions into
otherwise necessary equipment."
Pet'rs' Opening Br. at 26. GTE
contains no such holding. Rather, GTE
simply expresses concern over the Collocation Order's standard, which seemed to
allow competitors to add any function that "lower[ed] costs and
increase[d] the services they [could] offer their customers." GTE, 205 F.3d at 424. By contrast, the Remand Order limits
collocation of multifunctional equipment to devices whose "primary
purpose" is interconnection or access to unbundled network elements and
whose additional functions have a "logical nexus" to this primary
purpose, Remand Order WW 36-40. We find
this statutory interpretation eminently reasonable, particularly since the
statute speaks of collocatable "equipment" not
"functions." 47 U.S.C. § 251(c)(6).
Next, Verizon
claims that the cross-connect requirement can be justified under neither
section 201 nor section 251(c)(6).
Relying on the general rule that "a specific statute will not be
controlled or nullified by a general one," Crawford Fitting Co. v. J.T.
Gibbons, 482 U.S. 437, 445 (1987), Verizon first argues that the "general
authority in section 201 simply does not empower the Commission to sidestep the
specific limitation in section 251(c)(6) on the authorized use of collocated
equipment." Pet'rs' Opening Br. at
38. Under the Remand Order, however, cross-connects
are no longer collocated; rather, they
are owned and maintained by the incumbent.
Thus, section 251(c)(6)'s limitations on collocatable equipment are
irrelevant. Cf. Verizon Tel. Cos. v.
FCC, 122 S.Ct. 1646, 1684 (2002) (noting in the context of section 251(c)(3)
that "it takes a stretch to get from permissive statutory silence to a
statutory right on the part of incumbents to refuse to combine [unbundled
network elements] for a requesting carrier").
The only issue,
then, is whether the cross-connect require-ment can be justified under either
section 201(a) or (b). Although the
Commission explicitly invoked both subsections, Verizon's opening brief never
addresses section 201(b). Not until its
reply brief does Verizon argue that section 201(b) might not apply even in the
absence of section 251(c)(6), Pet'rs' Reply
This brings us,
finally, to Verizon's challenge to the space assignment rules. According to Verizon, the "new rules,
though superficially more limited" than the previous rules struck down in
GTE, "nonetheless effectively allow competitors to insist on their space
preferences and apparently prevent incumbents from requiring that competitors
install their equipment in segregated space." Pet'rs' Opening Br. at 40. This argument lacks merit. Attempting to make the current rule resemble
the vacated portions of the previous rule, Verizon mischaracterizes both. For example, Verizon states that "the
default rule effectively remains what it was before: Incumbents apparently may not, as a general
matter, require segregated collocation space and separate entrances." Pet'rs' Opening Br. at 40 (emphasis
added). This inaccurately describes the
Collocation Order; instead of mandating
as a "default" that incumbents could not require segregated space and
separate entrances, that order prohibited their use completely. See Collocation Order p 42.
Turning to the
current rule and mischaracterizing it as well, Verizon argues that ILECs'
"security and efficiency concerns apparently count for nothing in the
Commission's calculus." Pet'rs'
Opening Br. at 41. The Commission, however,
abandoned the requirement that CLECs be permitted to control the placement of
equipment; rather, the Remand Order
acknowledges that because "[a]n incumbent is far more familiar with the
design and layout of its premises," it should have "ultimate
responsibility" for determining where to place equipment. Remand Order p 90. Moreover, rather than banning separate
entrances and segregated facilities outright, the Commission established a
presumption against their use, which ILECs can rebut by showing that legitimate
security concerns require separate facilities or entrances, that the separate
facilities are comparable from an engineering stand-point, that they are
available on a similar time frame, and that their use will not
"materially" increase CLEC costs.
Remand Order p 102. Finally, the
Commission did not ignore ILEC security concerns; rather, it found "insufficient evidence
to support a finding that [those] concerns require physical separation of collocated
equipment from the incumbent's own equipment in every instance."
As Verizon's
brief makes clear, it prefers a rule that "at a minimum, permit[s] an
incumbent, as a default, ... to determine where in its central office ... competitors
may install their equipment and the path they may take through those
buildings." Pet'rs' Opening Br. at
40. But this is a policy judgment for
the Commission; nothing in the statute
mandates such a result or disallows the path the Commission here has chosen.
III.
The petitions for
review are denied.
So ordered.