Wired Communications

The days of the Bell System monopoly are long gone, but regulation once associated with “wireline” services lives on.  In fact, matters once considered “wireline issues” are now just as relevant to cable and wireless providers.

WBK has been at the center of wireline policy debates for decades.  The WBK Team includes attorneys who have honed their instincts over many years spent advising clients and serving at the highest levels of the FCC, state PUCs, and other governmental institutions.

The firm worked on the first matters coming out of the AT&T breakup, and has never stopped focusing on the broad range of issues falling under the “wireline” heading. Our wireline practice is extremely diverse. We are regularly involved in proceedings involving network neutrality, network interconnection, telephone numbering, intercarrier compensation, the pricing of business data services, forbearance requests, the regulatory classification of new offerings, and a host of other matters. We have worked on every major universal service rulemaking going back to the modern universal service program’s origins in 1997.  We provide expert counseling on all aspects of the FCC’s universal service regulations, including contribution and audit issues, Connect America Fund (CAF), Mobility Fund, the E-rate program for schools and libraries, the Lifeline program, and the rural health care programs, including the Healthcare Connect Fund.

We pride ourselves on fusing deep knowledge of the law, economics, and technology of wireline communications with keen political insight and a strategic understanding of how clients are likely to be affected by changing circumstances.  We are proud that wireline clients large and small place their trust in us to address the most important, and most complex, matters they face.