As one of the UK’s leading firms advising the public sector, many of our clients own considerable land holdings including roof spaces and bare land, which are prime locations for siting modern telecommunications apparatus.
Our specialist telecommunications advisory team provides legal guidance to both public and private sector clients on a variety of site arrangements concerning telecoms companies. Driven by collective experience on a wide range of telecoms matters, our team offers clear navigation through a complex and newly reformed area of the law.
The team includes specialist solicitors from our Real Estate, Planning, Data & IT and Dispute Resolution departments – thereby offering clients a full suite of telecommunications law expertise across commercial, residential and agricultural land.
We act for both operators and landowners across a wide spectrum of sectors, such as: central government, local authorities, residential management companies, SME telecoms companies and private landowners.
Services
We offer advisory services in relation to the Electronic Communications Code and legislation relating to permitted development, such as:
- Existing agreementswith operators and/or apparatus in situ, including advice in connection with redevelopment, termination and renewals
- New agreementswith operators, including advice in connection with the nature and extent of operators’ rights and telecommunications agreements under the new Code scheme
- Land audits to identify relevant occupiers and landowners to negotiate new Code agreements, including the drafting and serving of such agreements
- Redevelopment advice in connection with proposed or commenced redevelopment of commercial or residential property
- Planning guidance in relation to proposed telecoms masts or existing telecoms installations
- Challenging operators through the pre-application and planning process, including advice in connection with grounds for refusing operators’ entry onto land and on the procedure and grounds for objecting to applications for permitted development rights
- Training Sessions to in-house legal and asset management teams on the commercial and legal ramifications of the Electronic Communications Code
Our team has established a trusted network of expert advisers including surveyors, valuation experts and barristers who can provide specialist advice as and when required.
Our telecommunications advisory service has recently acted for clients in connection with the following:
- Advising a property management company on its rights under the new Code to strategically challenge the installation of 5G apparatus on a residential block
- Advising a local authority on telecommunications lease variations, renewals and the service of notices concerning telecommunications masts and equipment on multiple sites
- Advising a central government body on the transitional provisions of the new Code and negotiating a telecommunications agreement in respect of equipment in situ
- Acting on behalf of a private company to provide operational advice on new Code provisions owing to site access requests by telecommunications companies
- Advising a private individual in successfully objecting to an application for prior approval of telecoms development, and in making representations as part of an appeal by the operator
- Advising a local authority in connection with the approach by an operator for the grant of new Code rights including advising the client in connection with restrictive covenants affecting erection of structures on the Open Land and the s123 requirements related to Open Land
- Advising a local authority on the ability to and implications of seeking to enter into a new Code agreement with a means of separate mutual agreement to surrender
- Advising a joint venture company on its ability to obtain a s106 direction from Ofcom and preparing an application for the company to be added to the register of Code operators
- Advising a telecommunications Code operator on its ability to acquire Code rights within an estate and the appropriate entity to approach for the grant of Code rights, including serving para 20 notice and negotiating the telecoms agreement
Going Green
It is vital for the legal industry to support the environmental agenda. Our specialist teams are finding more and more ways to support our clients green goals and obligations. Visit our green goals page for more details on how we can achieve green aims both for our clients in the work we do as well as a business and employer.
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