International Telecommunications Overview
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International Telecommunications Practice Overview
The Wiley Rein International Telecommunications Practice is comprised of attorneys and engineers with extensive experience in both senior government policymaking and private practice.  Our clients include established companies and new entrants providing telecommunications, Internet, media and satellite and earth station services throughout the world.  Operating through a wide circle of contacts both in the United States and in regulatory and commercial bodies abroad, we have helped our clients shape the landscape that governs the provision of international services today.

In a global environment that is constantly changing, we pride ourselves on our ability to provide creative, strategic and yet practical solutions to evolving legal problems.  By applying our practical knowledge of how government decision-makers operate, we have proven to be highly effective advocates for our clients.  Our International Telecommunications Practice has the expertise and experience to ensure the success of your business plan. 

Wiley Rein has extensive experience representing U.S. international telecommunications service providers before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Administration, Congress and even other governments and international policy forums.  Members of our Practice are active participants in the development of U.S. telecommunications policy.  Richard E. Wiley, former Chairman of the FCC, serves as the Chair of the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy.  Nancy Victory, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, recently finished a three-year term as Chair of the FCC’s Advisory Committee for the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference.
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International Service Licensing and Operational Requirements | Satellites and Earth Stations | Mergers, Transactions and Foreign Ownership | Global Market Entry | Privatization, Liberalization and Other Issues Involving Foreign Governments | Monitoring Policy Developments | National Security Experience | Privacy | Contact Us

International Service Licensing and Operational Requirements
Wiley Rein has successfully counseled scores of clients seeking international service licensing, then helped them comply with the rules governing service provision.  The International Telecommunications Practice has also advised service providers on the regulations governing accounting and settlement arrangements with international correspondents, drafted and negotiated complex service provider agreements and advised on strategies for maximizing business success while complying with FCC rules. The team has advised submarine cable providers on licensing requirements and the changing regulatory regime in the United States and other key markets for landing and operating submarine cables.  We also have secured FCC approval to transfer international authorizations on numerous occasions (see Mergers, Transactions and Foreign Ownership below).  In addition, the firm provides a comprehensive training seminar on these and other international telecommunications issues for our clients. 
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Satellites and Earth Stations
The International Telecommunications Practice is thoroughly experienced in international and domestic satellite spectrum allocation, licensing and regulatory requirements.  Our clients include major providers of satellite communications, launch services and manufacturing.  Our attorneys and firm spectrum engineers have assisted numerous companies—both established satellite service providers and new entrants—in gaining access to the right spectrum to fulfill their business needs.   As part of this process, we regularly help our clients identify new satellite service opportunities and successfully complete the FCC’s licensing process.  For example, we have:
  • Represented one of the four initial applicants for a new satellite broadband service in the 17/24 GHz “Reverse Band.”  
  • Helped a new entrant secure spectrum rights for a “tweener” satellite that will offer expanded Direct Broadcast Satellite (“DBS”) capacity. 
  • Secured FCC authority for a mobile satellite service (“MSS”) provider to access spectrum on a temporary basis to satisfy short-term expanded capacity demands from the U.S. government and, subsequently, a permanent allocation of additional spectrum to meet its needs. 
  • Obtained an aeronautical MSS earth station authorization for the provision of two-way broadband internet service onboard aircraft.
  • Helped a fixed satellite service (“FSS”) operator develop and propose to the FCC the “Permitted Space Station List,” which streamlines the authorization process for U.S. companies to operate with foreign satellites. 
  • Served as restructuring counsel to a global satellite enterprise, helping it to convert an intergovernmental consortium into a private company.
  • Obtained a U.S. license for our client to offer satellite digital audio radio service (“SDARS”).
Wiley Rein routinely provides day-to-day guidance to ensure our clients’ satellite operations comport with FCC regulatory and technical requirements.  As part of this process, we regularly prepare and file applications for launch and operating authority, satellite system modifications and waivers and license renewals.  Our experience includes advising clients on:
  • Orbital debris mitigation;
  • Ancillary terrestrial component (“ATC”) rights; and
  • First-come, first-served processing of satellite applications.
We also offer clients an up-to-date presentation designed to train in-house personnel to obtain and maintain U.S. satellite and earth station licenses.  When necessary, we also ensure satisfactory resolution of FCC enforcement proceedings for our clients.  We additionally help secure FCC approval for mergers of, and private equity investment in, satellite system operators, and have recently worked on transactions involving some of the largest satellite providers (see Mergers, Transactions and Foreign Ownership below).
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Mergers, Transactions and Foreign Ownership
Wiley Rein has extensive experience preparing and prosecuting applications with the FCC for authority to assign and transfer FCC licenses and authorizations, whether to accomplish a corporate reorganization, sale of assets or merger of entities.  We are well-versed in the full range of technical and competitive issues that can arise in such cases and have successfully secured approval for some of the largest transactions in the telecommunications sector. Our team regularly advises companies holding FCC authorizations, potential investors and their counsel on the U.S. limitations on foreign ownership in communications companies.  We also help structure mergers and other transactions to ensure compliance with those restrictions.  We are experienced in helping clients successfully navigate the host of complicated issues a merger or other transaction proposing foreign investment must face, including: 
  • Administration security review through Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States;
  • Foreign ownership rules in the Communications Act;
  • State regulatory review; and
  • Antitrust review from the FCC and the Administration.
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Global Market Entry
The International Telecommunications Practice has advised both U.S. and overseas providers on market entry strategies, both in the regulated, licensed world of traditional communications services, and the more evolving, less clarified environment of Internet services.  Our team has advised a leading provider of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) on the entry rules in 100 countries and represented it in preparations for the World Telecom Policy Forum at the International Telecommunication Union.  The team has also advised clients on the issues associated with the acquisition of wireless licenses in a number of foreign jurisdictions.  We have additionally advised clients, such as manufacturers of software or communications equipment, on the rules governing export.   In addition, the team has counseled importers of such products into the United States.
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Privatization, Liberalization and Other Issues Involving Foreign Governments
Wiley Rein has advised foreign governments on a host of liberalization options, tailored to meet their stages of development and particular policy objectives.  We have worked both through donor agencies to help foreign governments meet their goals, and directly with such governments.  Through practical legal advice, the team has allowed governments to achieve their key objective:  fostering additional entry into their telecommunications markets.  The firm has represented an applicant obtaining a concession from a foreign government to build, operate and transfer to the government a country-wide digital network that provides voice, data and other services, resulting in a valuable contract for the client and services that furthered economic development in that country.  The team has advised on compliance with telecommunications trade obligations for countries seeking accession into the World Trade Organization.  The team has also monitored the annual review of compliance with telecom trade obligations of the United States’ partners on behalf of several clients. 
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Monitoring Policy Developments
The International Telecommunications Practice stays on top of policy developments with global implications for a broad group of telecom and Internet service and product providers.  The team has experience with efforts now under way at the FCC and in Congress to enhance Homeland Security, and we counseled the world’s largest communications firms and Internet service providers concerning privacy and security challenges following the attacks on September 11, 2001.  The firm has been actively following developments with the Council of Europe’s Cybercrime Convention — which the United States, Japan, Canada and South Africa have signed as Observers — and security developments in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.  International Telecommunications group members have participated in a number of industry and U.S. government interagency meetings on the development of international policy on network security, regulation, trade liberalization and competition policy.  As noted above, members of the group chair or are active in FCC and U.S. State Department advisory committees on international communications policy issues.  Through such involvement, and from its years of government experience, the Wiley Rein team keeps its clients regularly apprised of developments that may impact their business operations and cost of regulatory compliance.
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National Security Experience
Wiley Rein attorneys have extensive experience assisting parties with foreign acquisitions of domestic communications facilities, which are subject to prior FCC approval.  The Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI, commonly known as “Team Telecom,” typically intervene in the FCC review to ensure that foreign investment in U.S. telecommunications assets does not impair U.S. law enforcement, national security or infrastructure protection interests.

DHS’s focus on infrastructure protection has drastically increased the scope of the network security agreements (NSAs) that the DOJ, FBI and DHS have negotiated.  Wiley Rein regularly represents parties to foreign acquisitions before the FCC and in their negotiations with the DOJ, FBI and DHS. 

Wiley Rein is also one of the premier law firms for assisting parties to foreign acquisitions, mergers or takeovers before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).  CFIUS is an interagency group composed of major Executive Branch departments, agencies and offices, including the Departments of Defense, State, Treasury, Commerce and Homeland Security, which reviews foreign investment submissions under the authority of the Exon-Florio Amendment to the Defense Production Act of 1950.  This act grants the President authority to suspend or prohibit any foreign acquisition, merger or takeover of a U.S. corporation that is determined to threaten the national security of the United States.  The CFIUS process generally is initiated by a voluntary notice filed by the parties to an acquisition, merger or takeover.  The firm has substantial experience assisting parties in preparing CFIUS notices and in managing the review or investigation process, including transactions involving highly classified information.

Recent representative NSA and CFIUS experience includes:
  • Assisting a major satellite communications company replace foreign government ownership with private equity investment.
  • Advising in the sale of U.S.-owned Pacific Island communications assets to a Philippine buyer.
  • Managing a series of acquisitions by a foreign-incorporated international satellite services provider.
  • Creating new approaches to national security and infrastructure protection assurance in the “post-Global Crossing” environment, which obviated the need for a formal NSA in the multibillion-dollar sale of satellite broadcast assets to an Australian company.
  • Advising on the sale of U.S. cellular communications assets to a European telecommunications company.
  • Representing an incumbent local exchange carrier and wireless operator with respect to its acquisition by a foreign telecommunications company.
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Privacy
Wiley Rein has extensive experience helping companies ranging from multinational firms to start-ups develop and implement corporate and website privacy and security policies.  We advise clients concerning data protection laws and breaking developments in critical countries including Argentina, Australia, Canada, the European Free Trade Association, the European Union (EU), Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Taiwan and Thailand.  We have assisted companies in the communications, Internet access and e-commerce sectors identify solutions to the challenges raised by cross-border dataflows.  The team has drafted privacy policies and notices for world leaders in broadcasting and telecommunications and crafted alternative approaches for telecom companies ineligible to join the US/EU Safe Harbor Program.  In addition, the firm has advised start-ups and leading e-commerce companies on the emerging risk of aggressive EU privacy regulation of the global Internet and proposed steps to reduce the chance of business disruptions. 

We have assisted both Fortune 500 and fledgling firms conduct privacy self-assessments and gauge the suitability of the Safe Harbor provisions for their business operations.  Our team has advised communications and Internet service providers on the risks due to privacy regulation from the collection, use and disclosure of personal data throughout a corporation and around the world, and has suggested options for maintaining free flow of personal information to meet a company’s business needs and minimize risk exposure.
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Contact Us
Nancy J. Victory
202.719.7344 | nvictory@wileyrein.com

Jennifer D. Hindin
202.719.4975 | jhindin@wileyrein.com
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