The global telecoms industry is developing at a rapid pace. Continuing developments include the growth in significance in tablets and smart phones, cloud computing and smart cities to name just a few.
Eversheds Sutherland is one of only a handful of law firms with in-depth experience in telecommunications, with major U.S., UK and international telecommunications practices.
We represent companies of all sizes, from promising start-ups to established domestic and international companies. We also advise the institutional, venture capital, private equity and individual investors and lenders who invest in, buy, sell and finance TMT businesses.
Our lawyers have an in-depth understanding of the network infrastructures and architectures, and a working knowledge of the key existing and emerging technologies that are prevalent in this sector - essential in our view for lawyers working on communications network infrastructure and services projects. And, unusually for a law firm, we are corporate members of leading communications industry organizations.
Experienced telecommunications lawyers
Our global telecoms law practices cover a broad range of disciplines. The core sector practice group focuses on industry specific work, infrastructure, commercial and regulatory with the wider sector team covering corporate and M&A, banking and finance, antitrust and competition, litigation and dispute management, real estate, media and intellectual property law. Beyond these areas, we provide a range of full-service work to our telecoms clients by calling on the support of lawyers from other parts of the firm that regularly assist our communications clients.
Our telecoms industry experience includes:
Mergers and acquisitions
Whether you are a buyer, seller, investor or lender we can advise you in your most important network and communications industry transactions including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, tax-advantaged transactions, financings, and joint ventures involving businesses providing high bandwidth, fiber-based communications networks and related services, wireless telecommunications infrastructure, space, power and connectivity to high volume content providers, competitive local exchange carriers and data center operations.
Project and infrastructure
Our project and infrastructure experience includes work associated with the installation, build, sale and purchase, exploitation and sharing of network infrastructure of all descriptions, ranging from passive fixed infrastructure - civils, duct, fiber, copper/coax and passive radio infrastructure - through to active electronics systems and technologies, BSS and OSS systems and data center arrangements.
Our experience ranges across public networks, private LANs and WANs, countrywide and international roll-outs to in-building solutions and fixed wire, mobile, radio, satellite, cable and broadcasting technologies.
We have advised on network sharing, capacity swaps, roaming and interconnect agreements and agreements associated with the development of network coverage and capacity and associated back office services.
Industry-specific commercial work
We have a track record in industry-specific commercial work where our key advantage is a deep understanding of market structures, the constantly evolving regulatory rule book, industry practice, network issues and market factors both as to network software and electronics and the underlying physical infrastructure.
We draft and advise on agreements relating to distribution and sales channels, dealers, business partners and SPs, MVNOs, spectrum trading, corporate WAN procurement and outsourcing. We have established both standardized and bespoke wholesale and retail distribution arrangements, outsourcing arrangements, interconnect and access arrangements, co-location and data center agreements, and capacity and service contracts of every description.
Regulatory advice
We have significant experience in advising on regulatory matters ranging from day-to-day inquiries, complex regulatory assignments and disputes and investigations with communications regulators in individual countries and across multiple jurisdictions.
Litigation and dispute management
We have an experienced Telecoms Disputes practice covering litigation and international arbitration disputes regarding ICT outsourcing, service provision, network infrastructure, reseller disputes, artificially inflated traffic, regulatory telecoms investigations and enforcement actions.
Real estate
Our global real estate team provides bespoke, full-service real estate advice to a number of leading international telecoms companies. We advise on all aspects of real estate law including global estate/portfolio management, site acquisition and all aspects of contentious commercial property work including high value and contentious telecommunication matters and disputes. The team also works very closely with our construction lawyers in relation to data center site acquisition and construction projects.
