Through the years, both our law firm and its affiliated consulting arm, The Commpliance Group, have assisted hundreds of  telecommunications service providers with an assortment of regulatory compliance matters on a nationwide basis.

Next to the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC” or “the Commission”) Universal Service Fund (“USF”) program (which wins the prize as the most complex, rigid, and maddening regulatory regime impacting the telecommunications industry), the regulatory requirements that seem to give the industry the most heartburn are the FCC’s rules governing transactions, mergers, asset sales, and transfers of control (to an equal extent, State Utility Commission rules covering transactions involving regulated entities, or their assets).

For purposes of this primer, we will refer to the entire body of these regulations as “Transfer of Control” rules. 

Our law firm has represented numerous clients by assisting them in the navigation of both the FCC, and State Transfer of Control processes.

All too often, we are alerted to such transactions only AFTER they have been consummated. With few exceptions, any time companies close a transaction involving regulated telecommunications assets without first obtaining FCC authorization, we must not only take corrective measures necessary to procure authorization, we must then contend with the resulting FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation. 

The purpose of this primer is to share our firm’s collective experience representing clients before the FCC’s Wireline Competition, International, Wireless, and Enforcement Bureaus in all forms of transactional matters.