4.2 Arbitrated Portions of Appendices and Amendments

Section 252(e)(2) of the Act, and our Rule 4.2.3, provide that we may only reject an agreement (or any portion thereof) adopted by arbitration if we find that the agreement does not meet the requirements of § 251 of the Act, including the regulations prescribed by the FCC pursuant to § 251, or the standards set forth in § 252(d) of the Act.¹² Rule 4.2.3 also provides that we may reject agreements or portions thereof which violate any requirements of the CPUC including, but not limited to, quality of service standards adopted by the CPUC.

Joint Petitioners recommend rejection of the appendices and amendments filed in compliance with the FAR, asserting they violate federal and state law, FCC regulations, and CPUC rules and precedent. We are not persuaded for the reasons explained below. Even if we were convinced, which we are not, nothing about Joint Petitioners' argument convinces us to reject the results of the interim arbitration, and have no interim line sharing in place under any rates, terms, and conditions.

Pacific, Covad, New Edge, AT&T, and WorldCom recommend adoption of the appendices and amendments, subject to rejection or modification of limited provisions. We approve the appendices and amendments, but decline to reject or modify identified provisions for the reasons stated below.

GTE and NorthPoint recommend approval of the interim line sharing appendices and amendments without waiving their rights to challenge issues in the final portion of this proceeding. We adopt these recommendations, subject to the scope stated above for the final portion of the line sharing phase of this proceeding.