Team Telecom

Our preeminent Team Telecom Practice assists parties to foreign acquisitions of communications facilities subject to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, which often require Network Security Agreements (NSAs). As members of Team Telecom, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) participate in the FCC licensing process to address foreign investments that may impair U.S. law enforcement, national security, or infrastructure protection priorities. The FCC’s focus on timelines and transparency in Team Telecom has resulted in regulations dictating the obligations and commitments of applicants with disclosable foreign ownership. Further, DOJ’s enhanced scrutiny of telecommunications networks and DHS’s focus on infrastructure protection have increased the scope of Team Telecom’s inquiries and resulting NSAs.

We are uniquely qualified to guide clients through Team Telecom’s process of evaluating law enforcement and national security concerns related to foreign participation in U.S. communications infrastructure and networks. Our professionals include individuals who have occupied high-level positions within the federal government and worked with Team Telecom. Our National Security attorneys often collaborate with our renowned Telecom, Media & Technology (TMT) Practice to provide comprehensive counsel and guidance in this area. We assist clients in response to national security triage questions and on the negotiation, application, renegotiation, and expiration of network security agreements with Team Telecom. Wiley also helps clients in addressing the interplay between the Team Telecom review process and other national security reviews, such as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) process and Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) clearance.

In addition to collaborating with our TMT Practice, Wiley’s Team Telecom Practice is further strengthened by the broad and diverse expertise of professionals in the firm’s other areas of specialty, including the Privacy, Cyber & Data Governance; Export Controls and Economic Sanctions; Anti-Money Laundering; FCPA; Cybersecurity; Government Contracts; International Trade; Public Policy; and Corporate practices.

Representative Experience

Wiley’s Team Telecom experience includes, among other matters:

• Representing DOCOMO Guam Holdings, Inc. (DGH) in its $129 million acquisition of MCV Acquisition LLC, which, though its affiliates, provides cable, data, and telecommunications services in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. DGH is an indirectly owned subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. Wiley served as both corporate and regulatory counsel in the transaction.
• Serving as lead regulatory counsel for Globecomm, the satellite and communications solutions provider, in securing the necessary FCC approvals for its $340 million sale to private equity firm Wasserstein & Co. Wiley assisted the parties in structuring the transaction to facilitate prompt regulatory review.
• Counseling one of the largest global providers of telecommunications services in the world for CFIUS and Team Telecom approval in its proposed merger with an Australian company.
• Representing a global cloud services provider related to the national security review of major infrastructure construction.
• Advising one of the largest U.S. broadcasters regarding FCC foreign ownership rules and navigating the Team Telecom process.
• Represented the United States’ largest radio broadcast network before Team Telecom, which resulted in a mitigation agreement designed to address specific law enforcement and national security matters.
• Assisted a foreign private investment firm in its acquisition of the largest Spanish-language media company in the United States, resulting in a Team Telecom mitigation agreement designed to protect sensitive personal data.
• Represented a private equity firm that focuses on global infrastructure investment in its acquisition of a cloud services network.
• Counseling a major foreign government-controlled satellite company in its acquisition of substantial satellite communications assets serving the United States and the international community.
• Advising in the sale and acquisition of numerous U.S. communications assets, including terrestrial and mobile companies.
• Counseling on the sale of U.S. cellular communications assets to a European telecommunications company.

Contact Us

Nova J. Daly
202.719.3282 | ndaly@wiley.law

Eve Klindera Reed
202.719.7404 | ereed@wiley.law