Three top specialists discuss regulatory changes, the effects of convergence and emerging markets from the perspectives of practices in Belgium, Washington, DC, and Italy.

The telecoms industry in mainland China has been growing rapidly as the vast consumer market continues to use wireless technologies at an unprecedented rate. According to government figures, around 60 million new mobile phone users have subscribed each year since 2000. However, entry into this market is challenging for foreign investors due to heavy regulation and policy restrictions on foreign investment.

The Swedish telecoms market has long been associated with prominent companies such as Ericsson, and various successful entrepreneurial ventures. IT usage is extensive, with broadband and mobile penetration levels being among the highest in Europe.

Recently, regulators in the United States have demonstrated a renewed interest in issues relating to online privacy. First, the uproar over Facebook's Beacon feature - which reports on users' visits to third-party websites - drew significant press attention in late 2007. Second, the size of the online advertising market generally - and behavioural advertising in particular - continues to grow by leaps and bounds.

November 2007 saw the European Commission adopt a suite of proposals to amend the current electronic communications regulatory framework (2007 review). Significant change is proposed in some areas, although it remains to be seen whether some of the more controversial proposals represent bargaining chips that the Commission will trade for implementation in other areas.

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.