Telecommunications Infrastructure & Regulatory Law

CHW provides focused legal services to two distinct groups — cities and counties that regulate communications infrastructure, and property owners, whether public agencies or private parties, who lease assets to communications providers. We do not represent telecommunications carriers or infrastructure providers.

Who We Serve

Local governments (such as cities, counties, special districts) that oversee the deployment of wireless and wired communications infrastructure — including cell towers, small-cell networks, fiber systems, antennas, poles and right-of-way permitting.
Property owners, including public agencies and private landlords, who lease land, rooftops, easements or other assets to wireless or wired communications providers, and seek to negotiate or manage those leases or rights.

What We Do

Advise cities and counties on drafting, updating and implementing ordinances, design guidelines, permit-processes and policies regulating communications facilities.
Negotiate leases, licenses, easements and access agreements on behalf of asset-owners who host or lease to communications providers — and help protect long-term value, limit risk, and align infrastructure use with real-estate strategy.
Guide clients through regulations affecting communications deployment — including federal communications law, state rules, and local land-use/zoning and rights-of-way regimes.
Represent public agencies or asset-owners when responding to infrastructure-provider proposals — including site-hostage, co-location, fiber-contract or right-of-way arrangements.
Provide ongoing support: drafting and negotiating amendments, reviewing compliance, assisting with terminations or modifications of infrastructure agreements in evolving wireless/broadband markets.
Represent public and private clients in disputes related to telecommunications infrastructure, including regulatory and transactional disputes, in all phases of litigation or other dispute resolution.

Why Choose Us

Our niche is clear: we serve municipalities and asset-owners — not wireless carriers — so our interests align with yours.
We bring a hybrid of technical communications infrastructure understanding and legal/regulatory land-use expertise — turning complex infrastructure-law issues into plain language and practicable business strategy for all our clients.
Applying our decades-long combined experience in this specific field, we provide pragmatic, cost-effective counsel tailored to the fast-changing world of wireless, broadband and infrastructure deployment — helping our clients navigate regulatory, leasing and real-estate issues with clarity and confidence.

Key Engagements

Advised a large urban city on uniform design standards and streamlined deployment practices in appropriate locations, and more nuanced approaches in locations that raise historic, cultural and/or aesthetic concerns.
Led coalition efforts involving dozens of public agencies to protect and promote local government authority and interests in wireless and wireline deployment through multiple FCC proceedings.
Successfully defended local aesthetic discretionary authority against proposed FCC regulations before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Assisted a California county in adopting a streamlined wireless-facility ordinance including small-cell design and fiber-network siting guidelines.
Negotiated a multi-site rooftop and ground-site lease on behalf of a public agency hosting wireless and fiber-optic equipment, securing favorable terms on rent, term, assignments and termination protections.
Successfully negotiated an informal settlement to secure a non-profit entity’s property rights in wireless leases entered by a tenant without the property owner’s consent.
Counseled a private land-owner considering hosting a fiber-optic termination hub: structured the lease/license, easement and ingress/egress rights to preserve long-term value and mitigate risk.
Represented a California city in reviewing and responding to a communications-provider’s right-of-way and antenna-access proposal — achieving the city’s regulatory and real-estate objectives.