Talk America, Inc. v. Michigan Bell Telephone Co.
Supreme Court of the United States
564 U.S. 50 (2011)
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires incumbent local phone carriers like AT&T Michigan (defendant) to share their networks with competing carriers, including Talk America (plaintiff), in two ways: leasing "unbundled" network elements and providing "interconnection." In a 2005 order, the FCC freed incumbents from providing cost-based access to "entrance facilities," the wires connecting an incumbent's network to a competitor's, for certain uses, while saying the change would not affect interconnection rights. AT&T then stopped charging cost-based rates for entrance facilities used for interconnection too. Competing carriers complained to the Michigan Public Service Commission, which sided with them, but a federal district court reversed based on the 2005 order. On appeal, the FCC filed briefs arguing its own regulations still required cost-based interconnection access, but the Sixth Circuit declined to defer and ruled for AT&T.
Whether a court must defer to an agency's reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation when the agency first advances that interpretation in an amicus brief, and whether the FCC's regulations require incumbent phone carriers to lease existing entrance facilities to competitors at cost-based rates for interconnection.