Dick Edge is a partner in the Government & Regulatory Affairs Practice Group and head of the group's Telecommunications & Mass Media Team. Dick has a broad range of experience in communications law and in the antitrust and legislative issues relating to the industry. He has handled matters in all the major areas subject to regulation by the FCC, including telephony, broadcasting, international communication, satellites, cable television, frequency allocations, new technologies, consumer electronics equipment and private communication systems. He has also represented both financial institutions and borrowers in telecommunications lending transactions. Dick has extensive experience representing companies seeking approval from the FCC for new communications technologies. Working with firms overseas, Dick has handled problems relating to the licensing and regulation of telecommunication systems by a number of European countries and the Russian Republic.
Dick has handled a variety of communications industry issues before the U.S. Congress, beginning with the Communications Act rewrite efforts of the late 1970s and culminating with the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. For many years, Dick represented the State of Alaska before the FCC and Congress in connection with the state's efforts to bring modern satellite telecommunications services to Alaska. He is the author of the Telecommunications Competition Bill enacted by the Alaska legislature in 1990.
In addition to private practice, Dick served for two years (1974-1975) as a trial attorney on the staff of the FCC and for three years (1985-1988) as general counsel of General Communication, Inc. (GCI), an Alaska long distance company. While serving at the FCC, Dick handled a number of matters pertaining to the emergence of competition in the telecommunications industry and the development of cellular mobile telephone service. At GCI, Dick was responsible for the prosecution of a major telecommunications antitrust case on behalf of the company. Dick also has extensive experience with issues arising with the implementation of the interconnection policing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. He is conversant with the economic and technical aspects of the telecommunications industry as well as the regulatory and political issues that will affect the business prospects of its members.
Dick is a member of the Alabama and District of Columbia bars, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Economic Association.