Telecommunications Expert Witness Services

Our team has experience advising on telecommunications disputes, arbitrations and litigation matters:

If you are reading this, chances are that you're a legal professional practising in the areas of arbitration or litigation, or a business executive dealing with a contentious matter.  Our team of seasoned telecommunications executives have experience defending (responding to) very large claims (c. US $600M) whilst employed as Officers of public listed telecommunications companies.  Clients often seek experts with direct operational and executive telecommunications experience.  

We have provided expert testimony, both written and oral, in numerous international arbitration cases including those involving international investment treaties.  

We have worked alongside legal teams from leading law firms, such as (in alphabetical order):

• Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP)
  
• Clifford Chance (Al-Jadaan & Partners)
  
• Debevoise & Plimpton
  
• Dentons
  
• Gide Loyrette Nouel (Gide)
  
• Hogan Lovells
  
• Jones Day
  
• Squire Patton Boggs

We also regularly work with other industry professionals, for example accounting professionals and valuation professionals. 

We recognise some matters are urgent: Contact us now to arrange an initial consultation

For a confidential chat about how we may be able to help you, your organisation or your client, please reach out to Andrew White at consulting@wraycastle.com or complete the form at the end of the page.  If it's a time sensitive urgent matter, call: +44 (0)1539 742 742.

Independent case analysis / opinion

Prior to issuing a claim, or whilst negotiating a matter before receiving a claim, it is often useful to seek the unbiased opinion of an independent expert.  We advise either on very specific points, or more generally on the merits of a particular case from either a technical, commercial/business or regulatory perspective.  We conduct thorough reviews of technical documentation, industry standards, and regulatory guidelines to provide detailed analysis and provide independent analysis to assist legal teams, tribunals and courts in understanding telecommunications issues.

Expert Testimony

We provide both written and verbal Expert Testimony suitable for presentation to an arbitration tribunal or court.  Our experts are experienced at drafting such written testimony and at providing verbal testimony including cross examination and concurrent expert evidence ('expert hot tubbing').   

Consultation

Beyond written & verbal testimony, we offer consultation services to help legal teams understand the technical aspects of telecommunications, identify potential pitfalls, and develop effective litigation strategies. 

Telecommunications Expertise Is More Than Technology

• • Wholesale market disputes.
  • MVNO commercial arrangements.
  • Infrastructure sharing agreements.
  • Regulatory interventions.
  • Spectrum licensing decisions.
  • Telecommunications transactions.
  • Business planning assumptions.
  • Investment treaty claims involving telecommunications assets.

Our team provides expert opinions on matters such as:

• Failed Investments – Disputes often arise because an investment has failed for one reason or another.  We have experience reconstructing investment business plans, audited financial accounts and management accounts in order to present a reasonable investor’s perspective on risk at various points, using the information available at the relevant time, which often helps a tribunal or court understand the essence of a case. 
  

• Market impact & abuse - Often disputes involve the quantification of market scenarios ‘but-for' the alleged actions. This may include matters of competition, regulation, abusive behaviour, anti-competitive behaviour, and so on.

• Quantities - Rarely do parties have exactly the same understanding of the amounts of the services consumed.  Often usage records have been lost by one or more parties. We have used our expertise and experience of similar situations to reach ranges of quantities consumed which are agreeable to both parties. Our experience helps focus analysis on the matters most relevant to the issues in dispute.  

• Pricing and commercial terms - Differences in interpretation and understanding of contractual clauses often gives rise to disputes. Interpretation of telecommunications pricing and commercial arrangements can involve technical, operational and regulatory considerations, and may be complex, often caused by original drafting which includes an implicit understanding of ‘the way things work', or, by external changes, such as changes in regulation, that impact the commercial relationship. Our expert witnesses have provided their insights in numerous such situations.  

• Contract durations (term) and termination - In situations where the duration of a contract is open to interpretation, we have been engaged as telecommunications experts to provide an independent opinion on industry benchmark contract durations under similar circumstances. 

• Benchmarking to industry norms - We are often requested to produce benchmarks of industry norms. We have used our expertise to produce benchmarks using publicly available information, taking care to select examples that are comparable. In some cases, we have also been able to produce highly relevant benchmarks using a combination of public and, where appropriate and permissible, non-public domain information. 

• Valuations - We have worked with valuation experts (normally Chartered Accountants) to produce financial assessments to support claims for damages.

We provide Expert Opinions in areas such as:

• Investment Treaties – We have been appointed by numerous states responding to investment treaty claims.  Normally, such claims relate to the alleged expropriation of assets through the actions of the state.  The regulated nature of an industry such as telecommunications often gives rise to such claims.
  
  
• Alleged Fraud / Corruption – Cases often involve allegations of fraud or corruption of one sort or another. 
  
• Failed Investments – Given the capital intensity of the telecommunications industry, investments tend to be considerable, often multibillion US dollars.  They can fail for many reasons, for example under investment, macroeconomic factors such as foreign exchange risks, mismanagement, etc, leading to a deterioration in the relationship amongst stakeholders, resulting in a contentious dispute. 
     
• Infrastructure - Mobile / wireless networks, civil infrastructure (masts, towers, cell sites, roof tops, street site), fibre networks (FTTx, FTTP, FTTH, FTTC, FTTT), Broadband networks (fixed (FWA) & mobile), Satellite (LEO, GEO), sub sea (submarine fibre optic cables), data centres.
  
  
• Spectrum - Spectrum allocation, Spectrum policy, Spectrum monitoring, Spectrum valuation, Spectrum trading, Interference, DC - 1THz. 
  
  
• Regulatory - Market abuse, Margin squeeze, competition, SMP significant market power, MTR FTR mobile termination rates, Market remedies, Licensing, Permitting, Failure to act.  
  
  
• Inter-carrier / Wholesale - National roaming, international roaming, international termination, fraud, SMS, cell site sharing, passive sharing, active sharing, spectrum sharing, SIM box by-pass fraud.
  
  
• Go To Market / Pricing – Price wars in the telecommunications industry can, in some cases, wipe multiple billions of US dollars from the annual value of a national market, we have reconstructed historic market dynamics and regional benchmarks to understand value loss in market dynamics.
  
  
• Commercial - Quantum of damage, M&A performance, Contract benchmarking, SLAs service level agreements, QoS Quality of Service, MVNO agreements, intercarrier agreements, national roaming, fraud, breach of contract, counter claims, IP infringement. 
  
  
• Technologies - 2G / 3G / 4G / LTE / 5G / 6G, NTN, Satellite, IoT, NIoT, AI, TETRA, GSM-R, FRMCS, WiFi, 100G / 200G / 400G / 800G / 1T. 

Selected previous cases:

• Failed Investment - Retained by a nation state to provide an independent expert opinion upon the known risks taken by an investor in a multibillion US dollar international treaty case.  After carefully reconstructing the business plan, our analysis identified additional matters that were relevant to the issues under consideration. 
  
  

• Telecoms Mast Overloading - Retained by a leading tower company (TowerCo) to provide expert opinion, suitable for litigation, to determine if guyed masts (c. 100m tall) were overloaded.  Working closely with a recognised subject matter expert, the mast design was modelled and analysed.  

• MVNO Master Services Agreement - Retained by a nation state as respondent's Expert witness in c. $50M International Investment Treaty arbitration before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).  Aspects of the case: regulatory abuse, national roaming, national and international numbering, market abuse and MVNO migration.

• MVNO Master Services Agreement - Retained by a state incumbent telco as respondent's Expert witness in c. $60M International Commercial  arbitration before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).  Aspects of the case: market contract terms benchmarking, benchmarking to international norms, abuse, pricing abuse, abuse of dominant position, MVNO contract terms benchmarking, excessive margin and MVNO migration.

• Immigration case - Retained to opine upon plausibility of telecommunications professional's statements in immigration case. 

• MVNO National Services Agreement - Retained by a internationally well known MVNO group as respondent's Expert witness in c. $30M claim in national courts.  Aspects of the case: regulatory abuse, market abuse and MVNO migration.

• National Roaming Agreement - Respondent in S$600M national; roaming, cell site sharing and international traffic dispute between mobile network operators in a national market. 

What Makes Telecommunications Expert Evidence Different?

• Many expert witness disciplines focus primarily on technical analysis. Telecommunications disputes often require a broader perspective.

• Telecommunications operators function within complex commercial, regulatory and competitive environments. As a result, expert evidence may extend beyond engineering issues and require consideration of how telecommunications businesses actually operate.

  Questions frequently encountered in telecommunications disputes include:
  • How wholesale telecommunications markets operate.
  • The impact of regulatory decisions on operator performance.
  • Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) arrangements.
  • Interconnection and termination charging frameworks.
  • Infrastructure sharing agreements.
  • Spectrum licensing and allocation.
  • Telecommunications transactions and investment decisions.
  • Market competition and operator strategy.
  
  
• In many disputes, the relevant issue is not whether a particular technology functioned correctly. The issue may instead be whether decisions, assumptions, forecasts or actions were reasonable within the telecommunications industry context that existed at the relevant time.
  For this reason, telecommunications expert evidence frequently combines technical understanding with practical knowledge of regulation, investment, competition, commercial arrangements and operator operations.

We understand that:

• Litigation almost always stretches over two or more years - In our direct experience, it helps greatly if an expert witness is engaged as early as possible in the litigation process, ideally before the litigation itself has commenced.  In fact, in some of the cases in which we have been involved, we have been appointed prior to trial counsel.

• Timeframes are challenging - Our experience includes preparing expert reports within demanding procedural deadlines.  

• Practical industry experience counts - Many clients place value on practical industry experience when selecting an expert witness.  

• Communication is key - We are frequently required to condense thousands of pages of arguments, counter arguments, exhibits and witness statements to minutes of clear and concise testimony. 

• We aren't experts in everything - If we don't have the expertise in the particular area that you require, we will tell you. We may be able to help obtain the necessary skills and experience from elsewhere, for your consideration.