SubMAriNe CAbLeS

The business of constructing and then maintaining and selling capacity over submarine fibreoptic cables is fascinating, and is absolutely fundamental to modern day communications. The sector has its own unique challenges due to the extraordinarily rapid pace of development in transmission technologies as well as the timescales and levels of investment required to build new systems. DLA Piper is one of the largest global law firms in the world. The lawyers of DLA Piper have a particular focus on this sector and are very familiar with its specific idiosyncrasies and requirements. Whether its negotiating a new consortium agreement, arranging finance, advising on taxation matters, dealing with regulatory matters, purchasing infrastructure or capacity (on a lease or IRU basis) or advising on the effects of insolvency we have sector-specific experience which we dont think can be matched by any other law firm in the world.

uNriVALLeD SeCtor eXPertiSe Offering outstanding legal support to the industry requires a complex mix of international law, financing, tax, regulatory, property and commercial expertise. It requires a thorough understanding of the sector in all its aspects, and it requires experience going back many years. Our unrivalled international network matches perfectly the international nature of the business, and allows the firm to provide timely and relevant advice to submarine cable clients wherever they are doing business. CASe StuDY Scandinavian Fibreoptic Cable System Lawyers at the firm advised a Scandinavian Fibreoptic Cable System in connection with the structuring and drafting of a very complex deal allowing the system owners to sell one (of two) fibre-pairs contained within part of their cable, but to retain responsibility for the whole cables operations and maintenance whilst still allowing the purchaser, as much as possible, to operate their purchased assets independently if necessary. This type of deal has never, to our knowledge, been done before and it required us to understand and think-through:

Advising Main One in connection with the extension of their existing West African cable system to other countries in the region Advising Hibernia Atlantic in connection with their recently announced trans-Atlantic cable system which aims to connect the US to the UK with the lowest possible latency (for high frequency trading) Advising Broadband Infraco, one of the principal investors in the (consortium) West Africa Cable System (WACS) in relation to its investment in WACS. The bulk of the work was to help them sell a significant percentage of their entitlement under the consortiums construction and maintenance agreement (the C&MA) to another African telecoms operator Advising the Matrix cable system which connects Singapore and Indonesia. This involved drafting and negotiating many of their capacity sale contracts and advising on Matrixs maintenance arrangements Advising the Farice system connecting Iceland to Scotland and Denmark. This involved assisting on a very innovative deal to sell part of their system and also helping with capacity sales, their extensive backhaul procurement and on the cable crossing agreements with other infrastructure owners Advising an international data company in Costa Rica relating to the simultaneous use of space segment and submarine cable-based communications links. These links were used to carry large volumes of traffic over private lines from the US to Costa Rica. Advice included negotiation of contract terms, the acquisition of appropriate authority from the FCC and the resolution of regulatory issues Advising clients over an extensive period in acquiring Section 214 international telecommunications authority from the FCC and re: the proper formulation of contracts so as to avoid special concessions and other regulatory issues. Extensive experience in the analysis of foreign markets and transmission modes bearing on ease of licensing for carriage of US transiting traffic. Prepared numerous international traffic data and circuit status reports for submission to US regulators Advising C2C and also a bank lending to Reach in connection with the financing or refinancing of the rollout or maintenance of their networks

how such systems are constructed; the regulatory background and impact of the deal; the effect on existing backhaul arrangements; the position on insolvency; the difference (if any) between an IRU and a normal capacity lease contract.

reCeNt iNterNAtioNAL eXPerieNCe Lawyers at the firm have recently worked on:

Advising Global Crossing against Global Marine in the Commercial Court regarding termination of a contract for providing maintenance services for a submarine cable network Advising an International Telco in a multi million pound contractual dispute regarding the failures of a submarine network in terms of quality of service/ susceptibility of cable to outages

02

| Preeminent Expertise Market Leading Team

SPeCiALiSt SubMAriNe CAbLe LeGAL SerViCeS We have particular expertise in the following areas: Tax We offer a full range of services to clients of all sizes assisting national and multi-national companies to address the complex challenges of tax in their domestic and international commerce and business operations. We offer a full range of services in areas including acquisitions and disposals, construction, financing, land use, planning and development, leasing, environmental law, insurance and tax. We offer a full range of services to address regulatory risk for all clients - be they local, national or multinational. We keep our clients aware of impending changes to law and regulations and offer lobbying, risk reviews, compliance programmes and, in the event of regulatory intervention, specialist defence and crisis management. Telecommunication services are business critical to the entire commercial world. It is of paramount importance for businesses to have at their disposal lawyers who understand the telecoms sector, are experienced in handling large scale commercial disputes and who can deliver value for money. The firms team includes specialised regulatory and transactional lawyers who are independently rated as amongst the best telecoms lawyers in the world. Our asset finance team is experienced in transactions involving the procurement, financing and leasing of submarine cable and other telecoms infrastructure aircraft, ships, heavy and light rolling stock, rail infrastructure, oil rigs, power turbines and other moveable equipment and machinery.

Property

Regulatory

Telecommunications

Asset Finance

For FurtHer iNForMAtioN You can find further details of our international network overleaf. If you would like more information on how we can help clients in the submarine cable sector, please contact: Mike is one of the firms lead partners on telecoms matters and he has a particular interest in, and focus on, submarine cable systems. Rated as one of the worlds leading telecoms lawyers, he has delivered a legal masterclass to all of the (triennial) SubOptic conferences since 2004 and he was the only private practice lawyer on the SubOptic legal working group which produced a template System Supply Agreement in 2010.

Mike Conradi Partner t +44 (0)20 7796 6603 mike.conradi@dlapiper.com

www.dlapiper.com

03

DLA PIPER OFFICES

AUSTRIA GEORGIA OMAN THAILAND

DLA PIPER GROUP FIRMS

Muscat
POLAND

Vienna
AUSTRALIA

Tbilisi
GERMANY

Bangkok
TURKEY

Brisbane Canberra Melbourne Perth Sydney

BAHRAIN

Berlin Cologne Frankfurt Hamburg Munich

HUNGARY

Warsaw
QATAR

Istanbul
UKRAINE

Doha
ROMANIA

Kyiv
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Bucharest
RUSSIA

Manama
BELGIUM

Budapest
ITALY

Antwerp Brussels
CHINA

Milan Rome
JAPAN

Moscow St. Petersburg

SAUDI ARABIA

Abu Dhabi Dubai

UNITED KINGDOM

Riyadh
SINGAPORE

Beijing Hong Kong Shanghai

CZECH REPUBLIC

Tokyo
KUWAIT

Singapore
SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Kuwait City
NETHERLANDS

Prague
FRANCE

Amsterdam
NORWAY

Bratislava
SPAIN

Birmingham Edinburgh Glasgow Leeds Liverpool London Manchester Shef eld

UNITED STATES

Paris

Oslo

Madrid

Atlanta Austin

Baltimore Boston Chicago Dallas Delaware Houston Los Angeles Miami New Jersey New York Northern Virginia Philadelphia Phoenix Raleigh Sacramento San Diego San Francisco Seattle Silicon Valley Tampa Washington, DC

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

Sarajevo
CROATIA

SOUTH AFRICA

Cape Town Johannesburg

SWEDEN

DLA PIPER FOCUS FIRMS

DENMARK

Zagreb
EGYPT

Copenhagen
IRELAND

Stockholm
TANZANIA

Cairo
GHANA

Dublin
MONGOLIA

Accra
KENYA

Dar es Salaam Mwanza

VENEZUELA

Ulan Bator
PORTUGAL

Nairobi
NEW ZEALAND

Caracas
ZAMBIA

Lisbon

Auckland Wellington

Lusaka

PREFERRED FIRMS
BRAZIL

Rio de Janeiro So Paulo

TURKEY

Ankara Istanbul

About DLA PiPer DLA Piper is one of the largest global law firms in the world. Globally we have more than 4,200 lawyers based in over 76 offices in more than 30 countries across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US.

If you have finished with this document, please pass it on to other interested parties or recycle it. Thank you.

DLA Piper is a global law firm operating through various separate and distinct legal entities. Further details of these entities can be found at www.dlapiper.com Copyright 2011 DLA Piper. All rights reserved. | AUG11 | 2045247