C KUHUNI ATTORNEYS

Telecommunications

C Kuhuni Attorneys' internationally recognized Telecommunications Group, based in the firm's Zimbabwe offices, advises on a broad range of telecommunications-related commercial, transactional, regulatory, and infrastructure matters, particularly those with an international dimension:

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• Regulation

• Transactions

• Disputes

• Equipment Suppliers

• Service Providers

• Government and Public Telecom Operators

• Privatization
   

Our telecommunications lawyers have an in-depth understanding of the commercial and technological aspects of the telecommunications industry and continually monitor market developments in North America and Europe. We offer our clients pragmatic and sector-specific legal advice in order to successfully meet the challenges of today's rapidly developing international telecommunications industry.
 

C Kuhuni Attorneys provides a full spectrum of telecommunications advice regarding regulation, transactions, and disputes in a variety of sectors, including wireline and broadband, wireless, satellite, and Internet and e-commerce, as well as information technology.  Our clients include service providers, equipment suppliers, electric utilities, and governments.

The full capabilities of our firm—with more than 500 lawyers and other professionals in 10 offices worldwide—are available to support our telecommunications clients.  Our lawyers focus on other aspects of technology law, including intellectual property litigation, patent and technology protection, copyright and content protection, trademark and identity protection, unfair competition, and life sciences.  Our lawyers also provide the traditional legal support often needed by telecom companies:  corporate, litigation, employment, tax, antitrust, international trade, and property.

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Regulation
Our Telecommunications Group maintains close contacts with regulators world-wide, including:
 

• US federal and state regulators, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA);

• The European Commission and European national regulators, including OFTEL (UK), ART (France), RegTP(Germany), AGCOM (Italy), CMT (Spain), OFCOM (Switzerland), ODTR (Ireland), and OPTA (Netherlands); and

• International regulators, including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
   

Transactions
Our Telecommunications Group advises on a variety of telecommunications transactional matters, involving a full range of corporate, tax, securities, intellectual property, antitrust, and related issues.  We advise on mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures of telecommunications companies, and on service agreements, equipment contracts, and other commercial contracts essential to the ordinary course of telecommunications business.  Having established successful relationships with various investment banks and venture capital funds, we are also able to provide introductions to sources of financing, strategic partners, and content providers.

Disputes
In recent years, lawyers of our Telecommunications Group have represented telecommunications companies in major disputes before US and UK courts and regulators, as well as international tribunals.  We also handle telecommunications arbitrations and other forms of alternative dispute resolution, and advise clients on strategies for avoiding litigation.

Our representative clients include major US and European telecommunications companies.
 

Equipment Suppliers
We represent equipment suppliers on a wide range of commercial and regulatory matters, including:
 

• Agreements for sale, lease, and sharing of switches and other equipment

• Distribution agreements

• Joint ventures and consortia with operators

• Vendor financing

• Security interests in equipment

• Equipment certification standards as mandated by the Federal Communications Commission

• Energy efficiency standards, such as Energy Star, as mandated by the US Department of Energy and US Environmental Protection Agency
   

Service Providers
We advise both established and start-up service providers, including carriers, co-location providers, and other service providers, on a wide range of matters. Services commonly provided include:
 

• Obtaining individual licenses, blanket or class licenses, indirect access, and numbering allocations in North America, Europe, and other regions

• Acting in acquisitions or disposals of other telecom operators

• Drafting commercial service agreements

• Negotiating interconnection agreements

• Advising providers of voice telephony over packet switched networks

• Negotiating submarine cable capacity purchase agreements 
   

Lawyers in our London office have particular experience advising US carriers and other service providers on pan-European expansion.
 

Government and Public Telecommunications Operators
We advise governments, public telecommunications operators (PTOs), and others on various aspects of privatizations and public offerings. Our experience includes:
 

• Drafting appropriate regulatory legislation and concession agreements;

• Restructuring PTOs for privatization;

• Drafting prospectuses and information memoranda;

• Advising on commercial implications of licensing and regulatory regimes;

• Structuring consortia to bid for strategic stakes;

• Performing due diligence; and

• Making financing and security arrangements.
   

Privatization
C Kuhuni Attorneys advises clients investing in or purchasing government-owned telecommunications companies throughout the world on a broad range of corporate, tax, regulatory, securities, intellectual property, antitrust, and related issues that arise from such matters.  We pride ourselves on our in-depth understanding of the commercial and technological aspects of the telecommunications industry.  Our privatization team includes lawyers who collectively speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Persian, and Russian.

Our experience in representing government regulators on privatization matters allows us to better serve our clients’ interests.  We have advised foreign governments and private entities on over 20 privatization matters in emerging markets in the past several years across the globe: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Canada, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Poland.

Some cases representative of our experience in this area are: