The International Who’s Who of Regulatory Communications Lawyers has brought together four of the leading practitioners in the world to discuss key issues facing lawyers today.

Ambassador David A Gross and Ethan Lucarelli of Wiley Rein LLP consider the possible effects of the renegotiated UN International Telecommunication Regulations.

Daniel Preiskel and David Allen Green of Preiskel & Co LLP explore how the UK's 2003 Communications Act is being applied to a recent court case surrounding the use of electronic communications on social media forums.

The 1990s were dominated by talk of the ‘Digital Highway’, and the ’noughties saw the building of those highways through a combination of cable and fibre optic technology. A significant part of the bursting of the telecoms/dotcom bubble in the early 2000s was the result of too much capacity, too early, on those newly-built highways. The economic model was temporarily broken and telecommunications for a while ceased to be the darling of investors and financiers.

Following the United States, France is feverishly seeking to define the notion of net neutrality and to decide the issues it raises. An endless flow of reports, hearings, consultations and statements involving both the government and market participants has confused the real issues. It is the hot topic of the moment.

With the benefit of over 14 years of research and tens of thousands of votes from clients and private practitioners, Who’s Who Legal takes a closer look at developing trends in the regulatory communications legal marketplace worldwide.

In this section we analyse the findings of our research in greater depth to identify the firms and practitioners who stand out worldwide.

With the benefit of over 10 years of research and thousands of votes from clients and private practitioners, Who’s Who Legal takes a closer look at developing trends in the regulatory communications legal marketplace worldwide.

We analyse the findings of our research in greater depth to identify the firms and practitioners who performed most strongly overall. In 2010, Bird & Bird was recognised for the fourth consecutive year as the world’s leading regulatory communications law firm by The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, and, true to form, the firm once again achieves more listings than any other in this edition.

Our research has revealed 268 legal experts in 47 jurisdictions practicing in the field of regulatory communications, some of whom are profiled here.

A closer look at recent issues facing regulatory communications lawyers finds the sector to be bearing up remarkably well, despite recent turmoil in the financial markets.

In recent times the Argentine government has worked to deregulate the telecommunications network, a move that has increased investment and competition in the sector. The National Communications Commission was created in 1996 to monitor the industry, to penalise anti-competitive conduct and to represent communications companies internationally.

The research for the sixth edition of The International Who's Who of Regulatory Communications Lawyers lists 243 professionals in 45 countries.

The research for this chapter has identified 11 individuals, all of whom are recommended for their expertise in the representation of telecoms clients before communications ministries and government regulators. Our research has targeted private practice lawyers with an expertise in offering advice to corporates on questions of licensing, interconnection, tariffs and other general aspects of compliance with the regulatory regime. Given the close relationship between the regulation of communications and competition law, two of practitioners on the following pages appear in both chapters.