Tele­communi­cations

Telecommunications is the critical infrastructure for digitalisation. We are the leading legal advisor in both sectors.

woman with mobile phone crossing street telecommunications
Cutting edge: from market entry and operational compliance to clarifying innovative legal issues at national or European level, we advise and shape decisions at the highest level.
Law Firm of the Year for Telecommunications, Handelsblatt/Best Lawyers in Germany 2021 – ranked in volume 1 of JUVE and Legal 500 since 2019
Integrated advice – 7 TC specialists and >20 TMT experts work hand-in-hand with 500+ lawyers from all legal disciplines

Noerr advises national and international network operators who are ushering in the gigabit age with fibre optics, 5G and satellite. We assist you with major network expansion projects, international collaborations and new upstream and end customer offerings. We advise providers of innovative “over-the-top” (OTT) business models that are driving digitalisation.

Our clients benefit from our many years of experience as market leaders in devising legal instruments and spearheading the latest issues and trends. We offer the full range of advisory services, ranging from regulatory issues to contracts and transactions, from a single source.

Our services

We advise on all infrastructure projects (landline, fibre optics, mobile telephony and satellite) both from a regulatory perspective and with regard to operational and company law contracts.
We advise our clients on all regulatory issues, in particular in market, access and fee regulation procedures, standard bidding procedures, abuse control proceedings, frequency and licensing issues, numbering issues, as well as rights of way and rights of joint use with the relevant authorities and courts.
Alongside our specialised M&A colleagues, we shape joint ventures and transactions that move the market and advance digitalisation, for example in fibre optic expansion or network sharing.
We negotiate access and interconnection contracts, fibre optics expansion contracts and other upstream contracts for our clients when they launch new products.
We advise on the end-customer business from the distribution system to end-customer contracts including terms and conditions, and from telecommunications secrecy to data privacy, whether fixed network, mobile, satellite or “over the top”.
Thanks to our experience, we are in a unique position in the market to support the market entry of innovative online collaboration services. In doing so, we advise our clients on all aspects of the constantly evolving legislation, including compliance, regulation, e-privacy and data security.
OTT, CDN, DVB-C, DVB-S – we advise successful platforms and content providers on all infrastructure types from a single source and from a regulatory and commercial perspective, as well as on specific copyright aspects such as retransmission rights or upload filters.

Selected projects

  • Deutsche Telekom
    Advising on restructuring a 30-year contract to provide over 30,000 mobile sites for T-Mobile; the contract is the main subject of the sale of 51% of GD Towers to Brookfield and Digital Bridge and is valued at €17.5 billion; advising on IFM Investors’ investment in GlasfaserPlus GmbH, a joint venture to establish over four million fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connections, and the formation of a joint venture between Glasfaser NordWest and EWE AG to establish 1.5 million FTTH connections; advising on regulatory issues, in particular market and access regulation, tariff regulation (such as TAL, KvZ-AP and L2-BSA) and standard agreement procedures (such as TAL, L2-BSA and IP-BSA)
  • Deutsche Telekom
    Advising on setting up a joint venture to build and operate four million fibre-optic lines as well as on a joint venture agreement on an investment in fibre infrastructure with EWE AG
  • Major international satellite network operator
    Providing extensive regulatory and contract-related advice, also covering frequency proceedings before the German Federal Network Agency; advising on IT security and operators’ obligations in connection with public safety
  • SES Astra
    Advising on developing and expanding the HD+ platform for HD television via satellite and OTT
  • Inmarsat
    Advising the satellite service provider on regulatory requirements and compliance for innovative online collaboration and cloud services
  • GEMA and other collecting societies
    Advising on negotiating and enforcing cable retransmission royalties
  • Microsoft and other leading tech companies
    Advising on regulatory requirements and compliance for innovative online collaboration and cloud services

Leading role in the TC sector.

JUVE, 2021/22

The team [...] has longstanding experience in related mandates, which, in addition to the telecommunications law expertise, also draws on the knowledge of the full-service firm’s other practices.

Legal 500, 2021/22

Well
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