Qwest Corp. v. Arizona Corp. Commission

The Telecommunications Act of 1996(“Act” or “1996 Act”), Pub.L. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56 (codified in part at 47 U.S.C. §§ 251-261 , 271), created a complex federal scheme to encourage competition in local telephone service markets previously dominated by state-sanctioned local exchange carrier monopolies. AT & T Corp. v. Iowa Utils. Bd., 525 U.S. 366, 371-72, 377-80 , 119 S.Ct. 721 , 142 L.Ed.2d 835 (1999). Sections 251 and 252 of the Act require former monopoly local carriers to enter into interconnection agreements that provide the new competitors with access to some of their telecommunications components on an unbundled basis and on terms favorable to the competitors. Meanwhile, Section 271 allows local phone companies that used to be subsidiaries of AT & T, previously barred by an antitrust decree from entering the long-distance market, to supply long-distance services if their interconnection agreements contain certain access provisions. The Act explicitly authorizes state commissions to play a crucial, but restricted, role in this process, while reserving the power to administer various parts of the Act exclusively to the Federal Communications Commission.

Section 252 of the…