Telecommunications

Alston & Bird seeks to position itself ahead of the curve in the field of telecommunications and media law. Our clients are in the vanguard of communications technology and content and provide a vast array of telecommunications services including common carrier services: broadband video and Internet access (DSL, cable modem, fiber-based, wireless); cellular, radio and TV broadcast; programming content; radio location and telemetry; advanced security alarm services; and telecommunications and cellular equipment. In addition to most of the largest telecommunications providers in the country, our clients also include commercial and residential real estate developers who are providing comprehensive, fully-integrated telecommunications and video services to tenants and residents in multi-tenant units (MTUs) and Greenfield developments around the country.

In the wake of continuous changes to the regulatory paradigm governing communications services, the evolution of technology, and the deployment of new services and applications, the field of communications law is in a constant state of flux. These ongoing developments continue to open a vast array of business opportunities for commercial entities of all sizes, while posing an equally myriad, and often bewildering, set of legal questions for communications users and service providers alike. In this complex yet exhilarating environment, effective legal representation demands a highly developed knowledge of the law, current policy debates, technology, and industry business plans in addition to the ability to anticipate a client's needs, rather than merely responding to events after they occur.

In order to meet those needs, we assist our clients in proceedings before the Federal Communications Commission, the U.S. Congress, state public service commissions, state legislatures, state attorneys general, and local franchise authorities. Most recently, our team has played an integral role in two of the largest telecommunications providers’ deployment of fiber-based video services and those companies’ outreach to other industry sectors and video programming providers. During the course of these representations, Alston & Bird has also won numerous video related victories on behalf of these clients in Congress and on the local franchise level. We have likewise negotiated interconnection and collocation agreements between telecommunications providers and enterprise customers, CLECs and Internet Service Providers.

Telecommunications group attorneys at the firm also negotiate enterprise interconnection agreements, contracts for original programming, rebroadcast rights, and we assist our clients in mergers and acquisitions in an industry that is constantly consolidating, even as it spawns new technologies and the companies that follow.

Working in close coordination with Alston & Bird’s Legislative & Public Policy Group, Internet, E-Business, and Intellectual Property Group, and our Entertainment and New Media Practice Group, our Telecommunications Practice is at the forefront of the convergence of telecommunications, the Internet, and media related services.

Alston & Bird’s telecommunications practice is also unique in the scope and depth of its litigation experience on behalf of wireless and wireline telecommunications providers. In particular, the firm has extensive experience in defending telecommunications companies against class action lawsuits, product liability claims, securities claims, and other matters in state, local and federal courts in such diverse venues as the state of Washington, Georgia, California, Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Alabama and Florida.

EXPERIENCE

• Advocacy of a variety of legislative initiatives for the telecommunications industry on Capitol Hill and in various State and local legislatures in both the lobbying and legislative counsel capacity.
• Negotiation of content related agreements, cable franchise agreements and advocacy of pro-competition cable video policies on the federal, state and local levels including during policymakers’ consideration of several of the largest cable mergers to date.
• Domestic and cross-border commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, joint marketing agreements, public and private debt and equity transactions, due diligence reviews and preparation of opinion letters for public and private investments in telecommunications and media companies.
• Execution of targeted strategies to counter business, legal and regulatory barriers erected by client competitors. These strategies include outreach to policy makers on the federal, state and local levels of government and the advocacy of counter-policy solutions.
• Organization and representation of industry and cross-industry coalitions on issues related to broadband deployment, corporate fraud and bankruptcy, privacy and data security and the business aspects of the Internet.
• Representation of international carriers and overseas governments that require assistance in privatizing telecommunications networks or establishing legal and regulatory frameworks for developing telecommunications systems.
• Representation of communications clients in appeals of FCC decisions before various U.S. Courts of Appeal.
• Federal and state governmental approvals for acquisitions and ongoing operations through licensing, rulemaking, adjudication and other means including guiding overseas investors through federal and local regulatory requirements attendant to domestic communications acquisitions.
• Dispute resolution concerning telecommunications businesses in virtually every forum including federal, state and local agencies and courts of law.
• Provision of antitrust advice and corporate compliance programs for entertainment, media and wireless and wireline telecommunications companies.
• Internal investigations and defense of clients in governmental investigations of telecommunications service providers.