Dow Lohnes has a long and distinguished history of assisting wireless service providers in all aspects of their operations. In the early 1980s, Dow Lohnes communications attorneys represented many of the first cellular service providers in the United States. Dow Lohnes’s wireless clients were among the first to recognize the vast potential for cellular and other mobile wireless services, and Dow Lohnes attorneys helped clear the way by providing licensing and other regulatory support and by facilitating business transactions that enabled these carriers to serve broad areas.
Dow Lohnes has been a part of every significant wave of wireless service development in the United States and today stands in the forefront of the broadband wireless explosion. For example, on behalf of future auction participants, Dow Lohnes participated in framing the legislation that provided the FCC with spectrum auction authority and that created a new legal and regulatory framework for wireless services. Dow Lohnes represented one of the few Personal Communications Services (“PCS”) pioneers that was awarded a PCS license for its groundbreaking work in developing PCS. More recently, Dow Lohnes has worked with clients acquiring spectrum in the AWS and 700 MHz auctions – spectrum ideal for providing broadband services – as well as through spectrum leasing transactions. Overall, since the FCC’s spectrum auctions began, Dow Lohnes has supported clients in numerous FCC spectrum auctions.
Through its involvement in the development of new services, Dow Lohnes has particular expertise in assisting clients in the start-up phase of their wireless businesses. This work goes far beyond obtaining spectrum in an auction and includes assisting clients in acquiring and managing network infrastructure, purchasing and leasing tower sites, developing strategies for compliance with license requirements and FCC operational rules; preparing customer agreements; and negotiating inter-carrier agreements.
Dow Lohnes also is immersed in the policy decisions that affect the growth and success of wireless services. These policy issues have included auction policy, wireless number portability, early termination fees, wireless interconnection and intercarrier compensation.
With its deep understanding of the dynamics of the wireless business and the core philosophies of federal regulators, Dow Lohnes counsels clients in projects ranging from spectrum acquisition and competition issues to understanding and implementing federal and state mandates that apply to wireless services.