sheets that could predict the cost of loops, switching, and transport anywhere in the country down to the wire center level. But a court struck down the proxy prices because they were not set by the states, SO CLECs waited until states had finished their studies before learning the actual prices for UNEs. Virtually all major FCC decisions involved in administering the Act have been challenged in court, with mixed results. This has helped create regulatory uncertainty that in turn has made managing a CLEC far more difficult. Unbundled Network Elements Reduced Capital Needs A "facilities-based" CLEC could own all or none of its own equipment, or any- thing in between, though only certain combinations made sense. And certain The Great Telecom Meltdown unbundled network elements were unquestionably required for widespread competition to exist. At the top of the list was the local loop, the raw copper (or equivalent service derived from a multiplexing arrangement such as a digital loop carrier system) between the subscriber and the central office. Right behind this was dedicated transport, otherwise known as the interoffice facility (IOF). This was the raw bandwidth between central offices, used to access the colloca- tions spread out across a LATA. DS1-speed and DS3-speed local loops, used by business, were also obvious UNEs. UNE loop rates were generally disaggregated into density cells: Loop costs are lowest in high-density urban areas, SO UNE loop rates were also lowest there. Urban loop rates set by the states based on their own TELRIC studies were typi- cally in the vicinity of $8 to $12 per month, whereas suburban rates were more often in the $12 to $18 range. Rural rates were higher. Although Bell company rates rarely got much above $25, some non-Bell companies, notably many of Sprint's local operations (the former United Telephone and Centel), set their highest rates over $100 per month! Local telephone tariffs, on the other hand, tended to be most costly in urban areas because they had more lines in their lo