Telecoms & Technology

Investment in digital infrastructure is booming, across submarine cable infrastructure, high capacity terrestrial links, data centres, energy assets, passive infrastructure de-mergers and strategic infrastructure acquisitions. We assist hyper-scalers, carrier-neutral cable companies, national telecoms operators, investment banks and other digital infrastructure investors. Where public and private capital meet, we advise on the PPP and co-investment structures that allocate capital and risk to optimise public benefits and private investor returns.

In the submarine cable sector, our clients have selected us as lead advisers to major consortium members for cable systems that connect over 85% of the global population. We act on supply contracts, joint build agreements, construction and maintenance agreements, bandwidth and capacity arrangements, landing party arrangements, regulatory compliance. On multi-jurisdictional projects we co-ordinate the legal workstreams end to end, partnering with local counsel where needed, so that our clients deal with one team.

With the break-neck progress of AI development, data centre capacity and energy investment continue to explode. We advise on generational data centre development set to sustain regional and national prosperity, the purchase and development of data centres, high performance and AI compute supply, foreign investment rules, connectivity and co-investment in power generation and storage infrastructure.

From early public policy discussions on next generation fibre networks and mobile network rollouts, through to today, we’ve advised leading fibre and mobile operators across the Asia Pacific, the Middle East and beyond — acting for incumbent operators, new wholesale network and infrastructure companies, access seekers, regulators and policy makers on their most important projects.

In the fixed segment, we advise Australia’s national broadband company on its long-term regulatory undertaking and its most important commercial arrangements with its wholesale customers.

We act for Singtel Optus across their critical mobile infrastructure business and beyond. We also advise New Zealand’s leading operator, Spark, on a range of divestments, including its multi-decade arrangements for access to existing and new infrastructure provided by de-merged mobile infrastructure owner Connexa.

We’ve also worked with operators and investors on significant de-mergers and structural separation of passive InfraCos, active NetCos and customer-facing ServeCos — driven by both regulation and the commercial imperative to unlock value in vertically integrated assets — and on major new market structure initiatives such as neutral host and common backbone infrastructure companies across the fixed and mobile segments. We structure long-term commercial and regulatory frameworks that align incentives across infrastructure investors, customers and the public interest, and we’ve scrutinised infrastructure sales and sharing agreements for regulators and other interested parties.

We assist telecoms providers, users and suppliers continue to invest in major new mobile tower build programs, terrestrial backbone projects and related long-term investment and use arrangements. We help large users procure long-term connectivity, and we advise across the spectrum licensing, land access and infrastructure procurement questions that build programmes turn on.

We’ve assisted major financial institutions, airlines, health care companies and hyper-scalers to invest in transformational technology projects, including the the strategic transformation of operational and billing systems, major hardware and software procurement, turnkey design and build services, and cloud transformation.

We advise on strategic outsourcing and managed services across IT, business process and infrastructure services — from first-generation deals through renegotiations, transitions and exits — and on critical workloads moving to hyperscale and hybrid cloud, with the regulatory, data and operational questions that follow. We have a proven track record in complex global multi-source negotiations with the largest global providers, and because we act for both customers and suppliers of technology, we know how these deals are priced, governed and delivered.

Our work includes advising on ambitious smart city programmes and IoT rollouts, smart metering and sensor solutions to agritech, public mesh connectivity and behind-the-meter energy — where we co-ordinate complex multivendor supply chains.

When major technology arrangements come under strain, we help clients fix them: restructuring, renegotiating and resetting failing or underperforming projects and outsourcing arrangements, and running the disputes that sometimes follow. The focus is on protecting the programme and preserving the commercial relationship wherever it can be saved.

We advise global AI labs, leading neoclouds and a range of investors, operators and customers of high-performance compute infrastructure, from building and buying infrastructure and use rights to contracting capacity on top of it. We advise on project finance, bankability considerations, energy projects, procurement of critical hardware and software, critical infrastructure, foreign investment rules, export controls, sanctions, cyber security and competition law considerations.

Our clients are seeking to anticipate and shape the regulatory frameworks that will affect them as both developers and corporate users of AI systems — those deployed inside their own business and those that interact with customers — while implementing safeguards that let them harness AI’s benefits within their existing risk management frameworks.

We’ve assisted satellite operators across several generations of satellite broadband delivery, from narrowband satellites to high-throughput GEO sats, and now LEO sat networks.

LEO sat networks are transforming the economics of global telecoms and enable new universal service opportunities — unlocking business models built on transportable communications, and bridging the digital divide for remote communities. We’re advising on the projects that make those transformations possible.

Our work in the space segment spans all areas from market entry, government engagement on universal service and digital inclusion policies, law enforcement and security co-operation, spectrum licensing and use, and commercial arrangements with supply chain specialists and national telecoms operators.

We have decades of experience in every area of telecoms regulation and policy. The largest network operators, digital infrastructure investors, regulators and governments turn to us for advice on their most critical regulatory design projects.

We advise telecoms operators on essential service and consumer regulation where we have seen a vast increase in recent years.

Our work includes designing and advising on long-term economic frameworks for access regulation, such as the legislative structures for wholesale separation of network operators, and the Australian national broadband network company’s multi-decade access undertaking to the Australian competition regulator. We also advise regulated entities, access seekers and regulators on telecoms access disputes, market design, merger control and competition analysis.

We advise fixed, mobile and satellite operators on spectrum regulation and trading, land access and interconnection, investment rules and technical regulation.

Regulators and governments draw on our expertise to understand market dynamics and ensure that market regulation operates effectively and achieves intended policy outcomes.

We regularly advise on security of critical infrastructure laws, so that boards and management understand their obligations and the practices that protect the infrastructure with which they’re entrusted.

We advise on strategies for effective privacy compliance, particularly in novel businesses and for the processing of large and sensitive data sets. Our clients rely on our insights and industry knowledge to respond quickly and effectively to suspected data breaches and cyber incidents.

As governments and private organisations seek to secure the information of citizens, customers and employees, we’re working with some of the foremost digital identity technology providers to ensure that identity data can be shared securely without over-sharing. Our clients trust us to develop responsive, customised deal solutions in a formative marketplace with untested business models.

We advise boards and senior management on cyber and operational resilience — designing governance, compliance and incident-response programmes, and meeting rising regulatory expectations across critical services and the material service providers that support them.