Opinion ID: 785238
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The EEL Eligibility Criteria

Text: 157 Both the CLECs and the ILECs object to the FCC's eligibility criteria. The CLECs say they are too stringent and are over-inclusive insofar as they preclude access to EELs used to provide services for which CLECs are impaired. The ILECs claim they are too lax and are under-inclusive insofar as they fail to prevent CLECs from using unbundled EELs exclusively for long distance services. 158 We think that the Commission's eligibility criteria, though imperfect, reflect a reasonable effort to establish an administrable system that balances two legitimate but conflicting goals: the prevention of gaming by CLECs seeking to offer services for which they are not impaired, and the preservation of unbundled access for CLECs seeking to offer services for which they are impaired. We accord considerable deference to such administrative determinations, see WorldCom, Inc. v. FCC, 238 F.3d 449, 459 (D.C.Cir.2001); Home Box Office, Inc. v. FCC, 567 F.2d 9, 60 (D.C.Cir.1977), and find that the proxies the FCC used, though imperfect (as the Commission itself candidly admits, Order ¶ 600), are neither inconsistent with the Act nor arbitrary and capricious. The Commission also satisfactorily explained both the problems with the regime previously in place (which the ILECs thought should be retained), Order ¶ 614, and with the CLECs' proposed alternatives, id. ¶¶ 615-19. 159 The ILECs make an independent attack on the Commission's decision to allow conversions of wholesale special access purchases to UNEs. As we discussed in the section on wireless carriers, the presence of robust competition in a market where CLECs use critical ILEC facilities by purchasing special access at wholesale rates, i.e., under § 251(c)(4), precludes a finding that the CLECs are impaired by lack of access to the element under § 251(c)(3). We realize that this might create anomalies, as CLECs hitherto relying on special access might be barred from access to EELs as unbundled elements, while a similarly situated CLEC that had just entered the market would not be barred. On the other hand, if history showed that lack of access to EELs had not impaired CLECs in the past, that would be evidence that similarly situated firms would be equally unimpaired going forward. Because we have already determined that we must remand to the Commission, given the invalidity of the line it drew between qualifying and non-qualifying services, the Commission can consider and resolve any potential anomaly on remand.