Opinion ID: 2996815
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dark Fiber

Text: “Dark fiber” is excess cable laid in anticipation of future use, but not currently connected to electronics, or “lit,” enabling it to carry telecommunications signals. In re Implementation of the Local Competition Provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 15 FCC Rcd. 3696, 3776, ¶ 174 (Nov. 5, 1999) (“UNE Remand Order”). The act of connecting dark fiber to electronics so that it can carry a signal is called “splicing.” Ameritech conceded in one of its several Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(j) letters that the FCC’s newest formal rulemaking, the Triennial Review Order,11 released August 21, 2003, was “inconsistent” with its appeal arguing that it was not required to splice dark fiber upon AT&T’s request because to do so would be concomitant to providing AT&T with superior, not just nondiscriminatory, access to Ameritech’s network. The Triennial Review Order foreclosed that argument by explicitly stating: We require incumbent LECs to make routine network modifications to unbundled transmission facilities used by requesting carriers where the requested transmission facility has already been constructed. By “routine network modifications” we mean that incumbent LECs must perform those activities that incumbent LECs regularly undertake for their own customers.