47 U.S.C. § 251 — Interconnection

(a) General duty of telecommunications carriers: Every telecommunications carrier must: (1) connect, directly or indirectly, with other carriers' networks and equipment; and (2) avoid installing network features that don't meet the guidelines and standards set under sections 255 or 256 of this title. (b) Obligations of all local exchange carriers: Every local exchange carrier must: (1) Resale: not block, and not put unreasonable or discriminatory conditions on, other companies reselling its telecommunications services. (2) Number portability: let customers keep their phone numbers when switching carriers, as much as technically possible, following FCC rules. (3) Dialing parity: give competing phone service providers the same dialing experience its own customers get, and let them access phone numbers, operator services, directory assistance, and directory listings fairly, without unreasonable delays. (4) Access to rights-of-way: give competing telecommunications providers access to its poles, ducts, conduits, and rights-of-way, on rates, terms, and conditions consistent with section 224 of this title. (5) Reciprocal compensation: set up arrangements to fairly compensate other carriers for carrying and delivering telecommunications traffic between networks. (c) Additional obligations of incumbent local exchange carriers: Beyond the duties in (b), an "incumbent" local exchange carrier (defined in (h)) must: (1) Duty to negotiate: negotiate in good faith, under section 252 of this title, the terms of agreements to meet the duties in paragraphs (1) through (5) of (b) and this subsection. The carrier requesting interconnection must also negotiate in good faith. (2) Interconnection: provide, for any requesting carrier's facilities and equipment, interconnection with its network — (A) for transmitting and routing local phone service and exchange access; (B) at any technically feasible point in the network; (C) with quality at least equal to what the incumbent gives itself or any affiliate; and (D) on rates, terms, and conditions that are just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory. (3) Unbundled access: give requesting carriers nondiscriminatory access to individual pieces of its network ("network elements"), unbundled, at any technically feasible point, on just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms — and let carriers combine those pieces to provide their own telecommunications service. (4) Resale: (A) offer for resale, at wholesale rates, any service the carrier sells at retail to non-carrier subscribers; and (B) not block or unreasonably restrict that resale — except a state commission may, consistent with FCC rules, stop a reseller from selling a service meant for one category of subscriber to a different category of subscriber. (5) Notice of changes: give reasonable public notice before changing information needed to transmit and route services over its facilities or networks, or making other changes affecting how its networks work with others. (6) Collocation: let other carriers physically place equipment at the incumbent's premises, on just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory terms, for interconnection or access to unbundled network elements — unless the incumbent shows a state commission that physical collocation isn't practical for technical or space reasons, in which case it may offer virtual collocation instead. (d) Implementation: (1) In general: The FCC had 6 months after February 8, 1996, to finish all regulations needed to implement this section. (2) Access standards: In deciding which network elements must be made available under (c)(3), the FCC must consider at least: (A) whether access to proprietary network elements is necessary; and (B) whether denying access would keep the requesting carrier from being able to offer the services it wants to offer. (3) Preservation of State access regulations: When writing and enforcing its rules under this section, the FCC can't block enforcement of a state commission's regulation, order, or policy that (A) sets access and interconnection duties for local exchange carriers, (B) is consistent with this section's requirements, and (C) doesn't substantially prevent this section's requirements and purposes from being carried out. (e) Numbering administration: (1) Commission authority and jurisdiction: The FCC must create or name one or more neutral organizations to administer telecommunications numbering and hand out numbers fairly. The FCC has exclusive authority over the parts of the North American Numbering Plan that apply to the United States, though nothing stops the FCC from delegating some or all of that authority to state commissions or other entities. (2) Costs: All telecommunications carriers must share the cost of establishing numbering administration and number portability, on a competitively neutral basis, as the FCC decides. (3) Universal emergency telephone number: The FCC (and any agency or entity it delegates authority to) must designate 9–1–1 as the nationwide emergency telephone number, for both wireline and wireless phone service, with reasonable transition time for areas that weren't using 9–1–1 as an emergency number as of October 26, 1999. (4) Universal telephone number for national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system: 9–8–8 is designated as the nationwide telephone number for the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system, run through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (maintained by the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use) and the Veterans Crisis Line (maintained by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs). (f) Exemptions, suspensions, and modifications: (1) Exemption for certain rural telephone companies: (A) Subsection (c) doesn't apply to a rural telephone company until (i) it receives a real request for interconnection, services, or network elements, and (ii) a state commission decides, under (B), that the request isn't unduly economically burdensome, is technically feasible, and is consistent with section 254 of this title (other than subsections (b)(7) and (c)(1)(D)). (B) The party making the request must submit notice to the state commission, which then investigates whether to end the exemption. Within 120 days of receiving that notice, the state commission must end the exemption if the request meets those standards, and must then set an implementation schedule consistent with FCC regulations. (C) This exemption doesn't apply to a request from a cable operator that provides video programming and wants to provide telecommunications service in an area where the rural company also provides video programming — unless the rural company was already providing video programming on February 8, 1996. (2) Suspensions and modifications for rural carriers: A local exchange carrier with fewer than 2% of the nation's subscriber lines nationwide may petition a state commission to suspend or modify how a requirement of subsection (b) or (c) applies to specified facilities. The state commission must grant the petition, to the extent and for as long as it decides the suspension or modification (A) is necessary (i) to avoid a significant adverse economic impact on telecommunications users generally, (ii) to avoid an unduly economically burdensome requirement, or (iii) to avoid a technically infeasible requirement; and (B) is consistent with the public interest, convenience, and necessity. The state commission must act on the petition within 180 days, and may suspend enforcement of the requirement while deciding. (g) Continued enforcement of exchange access and interconnection requirements: Starting February 8, 1996, each local exchange carrier providing wireline services must keep providing exchange access, information access, and related services to interexchange carriers and information service providers under the same equal-access and nondiscriminatory rules — including receiving compensation — that applied to it the day before February 8, 1996, under any existing court order, consent decree, or FCC regulation, order, or policy. This continues until the FCC's new regulations explicitly replace those rules. During this period, the old rules are enforced the same way FCC regulations are. (h) "Incumbent local exchange carrier" defined: (1) Definition: For this section, an "incumbent local exchange carrier" is a local exchange carrier that (A) provided telephone exchange service in an area on February 8, 1996, and (B)(i) was, on that date, deemed a member of the exchange carrier association under FCC rule 69.601(b), or (ii) is a person or entity that later became a successor or assign of such a member. (2) Treatment of comparable carriers as incumbents: The FCC may, by rule, treat another local exchange carrier (or class of carriers) as an incumbent for this section, if (A) it holds a market position comparable to a true incumbent carrier's, (B) it has substantially replaced an incumbent carrier, and (C) doing so is consistent with the public interest, convenience, necessity, and this section's purposes. (i) Savings provision: Nothing in this section limits or otherwise affects the FCC's authority under section 201 of this title.