Partners Bio

L. Charles Keller

Areas of Practice Telecommunications Law Born February 20, 1967, San Jose, California Education J.D., University of San Francisco School of Law, 1993 B.A., University of California, Los Angeles (cum laude), 1990 Bar Admissions California, 1994 District of Columbia, 1996

L. Charles Keller assists the Firm’s clients with policy, strategy, and compliance issues related to matters under the jurisdiction of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau.  Mr. Keller has extensive experience with universal service, numbering, and intercarrier competition issues, and has also worked on network unbundling and other local competition issues.  Mr. Keller also works on policy issues related to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other IP-based services.

Mr. Keller joined Wilkinson Barker in 2001 after five years at the Federal Communications Commission, where he held leadership positions in the then-Common Carrier Bureau.  He started at the FCC in the immediate wake of the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and worked for over three years on the implementation of the Act’s Universal Service provisions, ultimately being named Deputy Chief of the division responsible for Universal Service issues.  He also served on the federal staff of the Universal Service Joint Board, interfacing with state regulators and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) to develop federal Universal Service policy.

In 1999 he was named Chief of the division with responsibility for issues related to telephone numbering and local number portability.  He played a substantial role in developing the policies contained in the first and second Numbering Resource Optimization Reports & Orders, which established the current rules and reporting requirements for carriers using telephone numbers. He worked closely with state and federal policy makers to ensure that numbering policy kept pace with the evolution of competition. He also was involved in the Commission's proceedings related to Next-Generation Network technologies, focusing on how changes in carriers' networks, including increased deployment of fiber and remote terminals, affect local competition. He supervised the drafting of Local Competition orders related to Local Access and Transport Area (LATA) boundaries and restrictions. During his tenure, he supervised the Common Carrier Bureau's activities related to wireline carriers' compliance with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). He was involved in the Commission proceedings related to 911 and E-911 dialing requirements. He also oversaw the Commission's proceedings related to Directory Assistance competition and Payphone Compensation. In addition, he managed the Commission's proceedings to reform the Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) for individuals with hearing and speech disabilities and the Part 68 terminal equipment registration system.

While at the Commission, Mr. Keller was a speaker on numerous industry and state regulatory panels on universal service and numbering issues. Before joining the Commission, Chuck was a telecommunications attorney in private practice representing clients in licensing and transactional matters. While in law school, he served as Articles Editor of the Law Review and was a judicial extern to Justice Joyce L. Kennard of the California Supreme Court.

Mr. Keller is an active member of the Federal Communications Bar Association.  He served for six years as a volunteer tutor with the Metropolitan-Delta Adult Literacy Council, during which time his student developed from functional illiteracy to enter a GED preparation course. 

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