Communications Infrastructure
Overview
Wireless siting and deployment
We help ensure that the next generation of wireless infrastructure can be deployed quickly and efficiently. As providers deploy more small cells and prepare for 5G deployment, and as equipment size continues to shrink and become more pervasive, regulations have not kept pace. We are helping streamline and shape regulations for this next generation of deployment and litigate where necessary so our clients can achieve their business plans.
- Site acquisition and environmental due diligence
- Real estate, tower, and building access agreements
- Land use permits and variances; zoning and environmental issues
- Federal and state court appeals of permit denials
- Fiber swaps, conduit builds, and fiber pulls
- Facilities siting and permitting
- Franchise, pole attachment, right-of-way access, and joint use agreements with utilities and government agencies
Pole Attachments
Our attorneys have negotiated hundreds of pole attachment agreements for clients in nearly every state, as well as the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. We help our clients gain access, reduce pole attachment rates, or revise onerous terms and conditions imposed by pole owners, including extensive dealings with unregulated pole owners such as electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. We have successfully litigated pole attachment cases at the FCC and in state and federal courts, including in federal Courts of Appeal and U.S. Supreme Court. DWT attorneys have also played a crucial role in shaping pole attachment policy, participating in every pole-related FCC rulemaking over the last five decades and in most state pole attachment rulemakings, and advocating for favorable pole attachment laws before Congress and state legislatures.
- Pole attachment rate compliance
- Enforcing timely and affordable access to poles
- Pole attachment litigation
- Advocacy before state and federal decision-makers