Hamiton

In these consolidated appeals, AT & T Communications of the Pacific Northwest (“AT & T”), MCI Metro Access Transmission Services (“MCI”), and WorldCom Technologies (‘WorldCom”) appeal district court judgments invalidating several provisions of arbitrated interconnection agreements with U.S. West Communications (“US West”) 1 pursuant to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (“the Act”). We conclude that all the challenged provisions of the interconnection agreements are valid under the Act and its implementing regulations. We therefore reverse the district court’s partial summary judgment invalidating those provisions.

I

The Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub.L. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56, codified in part at 47 U.S.C. §§ 251-61 , is designed to foster competition in local and long distance telephone markets by neutralizing the competitive advantage inherent in incumbent carriers’ ownership of the physical networks required to supply telecommunication services. Sections 251 and 252 *1052 of the Act require incumbent local exchange carriers (“ILECs”) to allow competitive local exchange carriers (“CLECs”) to interconnect with their existing networks and to purchase their finished…