lities, plus UNE-P at substantially increased prices. Very few deals were struck, although Qwest, mindful of competition from cable modems, did strike a line-sharing deal with Covad-with whom it had such a deal before it was mandated nationally by the FCC. Several CLECs did appeal to the Supreme Court but did not get a stay pending consideration. Thus the vacatur technically took effect on June 15, 2004. The vacatur did not, as one might expect, mean that the TRO was voided. Rather, because the TRO was itself a remand, it meant that any UNE that was in any way contested-practically everything except analog loops would no longer be required. For ILECs, this was like a month of Christmases! This led to a game of chicken: The ILECs typically invoked the change-of-law clauses in their interconnection agreements and gave 90-day notices to CLECs. Then, in midsummer, the FCC issued an interim order, basically a six-month freeze on most existing terms for existing (not new entrant) CLECs. This pro- vided Powell with enough time to consider his next career, the Bush administra- tion with a reprieve on a tricky issue until after the election, and CLECs with a short extension of their businesses, while it preserved the regulatory uncertainty that had helped squelch new investment in CLECs.Independent ISPs Face New Survival Threat from Bush reelection After the Bush re-election in late 2004, the membership of the FCC was set for substantial turnover, but the agenda was clearly in place. In October 2004, the Commission granted the ILECs a few early holiday ponies. At BellSouth's request, it extended the TRO's ban on FTTH unbundling SO that it also now applied to "fiber to the curb" (FTTC), SO that copper loops no longer needed unbundling SO long as they were attached to a fiber-optic-fed remote terminal whose copper distribution loops were all shorter than 500 feet. It had shortly earlier granted the same "unbundling relief" for copper loops within fiber-fed multiple dwelling units and mixed commercial-residential buildings. 