Telecommunications and Media

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Telecommunications and media companies get legal counsel on FCC regulation, spectrum and wireless licensing, network infrastructure, and content rights, delivered by attorneys with the technical background to follow how carriers, platforms, and 5G networks actually operate.

Telecom and media keep merging as networks, platforms, and content collide. You might run a carrier, a streaming service, a tower portfolio, or a communications technology business, and each faces its own regulatory and commercial pressures. Our attorneys come from engineering, so spectrum, network architecture, and distribution technology are familiar ground. We help you stay compliant with the FCC and state regulators while doing the deals that move your business forward.

FCC and State Regulation

Communications businesses live under heavy oversight. We advise on FCC licensing, interconnection arrangements, universal service obligations, and the rules governing how traffic moves across networks. When state utility commissions and federal frameworks both apply, we sort out which controls and how. For carriers operating across borders, we work through the international telecom requirements so your service offerings and filings stay aligned with the law in each market.

Network Infrastructure Deals

Coverage depends on physical buildout, and buildout depends on agreements. We handle tower and site leases, rights of way, small cell deployment, and fiber network arrangements, and we structure the transactions that fund and transfer this infrastructure. Whether you are densifying a network or acquiring an asset portfolio, we draft terms that protect your access, manage your obligations, and keep deployment timelines from getting stuck in negotiation.

Spectrum and Wireless

Wireless service rises or falls on spectrum. We advise on auctions, license transfers, secondary market deals, and interference disputes, and we support 5G deployment from the licensing side. Because we understand how the radio side actually works, we can speak to engineers and regulators in the same conversation and keep your spectrum strategy practical rather than theoretical, whether you are acquiring rights or putting existing holdings to work.

Content Rights and Distribution

Media value depends on who owns and who can use the content. We handle licensing, distribution, and platform agreements, clarify rights as programming moves across linear, streaming, and on-demand channels, and protect the trademarks and copyrights behind your brands and catalog. As distribution models keep shifting, we draft deals flexible enough to follow your content wherever audiences go without giving away leverage you will want back later.

Frequently asked questions

The FCC regulates use of the radio spectrum and many communications services, so you generally need authorization to transmit on licensed frequencies, operate certain network facilities, or provide regulated services. Equipment that emits radio frequency energy also needs FCC equipment authorization before it can be marketed. The specific filing depends on your service, so identify early whether you need a spectrum license, an equipment authorization, or a service-specific approval, since these gate your launch.

Spectrum is a limited public resource the FCC assigns through licenses, often via auction, with terms covering frequency, geography, power, and buildout obligations. Licenses can frequently be assigned or leased to others, but those transactions usually require FCC approval and must satisfy the buildout and use conditions attached to the license. Missing a buildout deadline can put a license at risk, so track those obligations closely.

You need a license covering the specific uses you intend, including the media, territory, term, and whether distribution is linear, on-demand, or streaming. Music adds extra layers because there are separate rights in the composition and the recording, often cleared through different parties. Carriage and retransmission arrangements have their own regulatory rules, so align your content licenses with how you actually deliver to subscribers to avoid gaps in your rights.

Beyond spectrum, infrastructure deployment runs into siting and permitting rules, pole-attachment and right-of-way access, and equipment security requirements that restrict certain vendors. Patent licensing also matters, since 5G relies on standardized technology covered by standard-essential patents that are licensed on FRAND terms. Sorting out FRAND licensing and supply-chain compliance early helps you avoid both injunction risk and procurement problems.

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