What is the state of the U.S. digital infrastructure market in 2026? Ropes & Gray participated in Metro Connect USA, the largest digital infrastructure conference in the United States....more
As 2025 draws to a close, tech companies have continued to pour an unprecedented amount of capital into data centers, unveiling multi-billion-dollar investments to meet the surging demand for compute capacity. The United...more
What is the latest news in digital infrastructure? Ropes & Gray lawyers gained insights into this question at TMT Finance USA in New York on October 7-8. We heard from senior dealmakers leading acquisitions, financings, and...more
In BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC et al. v. Ala. DOR, Ala. Tax Tribunal, Dkt. No. S. 22-829-LP (Sep. 23, 2025), the Alabama Tax Tribunal upheld the Department of Revenue’s denial of a sales tax refund sought by a...more
Under Commissioner Brendan Carr, expect to see a renewed focus on streamlining the rules for fiber and other wired infrastructure deployment. Commissioner Carr has pointed out that between 2016 and 2019, the Federal...more
Baltimore nonprofit Waves received a $2 million grant from Baltimore’s Office of Information and Technology to deploy fiber-optic networks in low-income residential buildings, aiming to bridge the city’s digital divide...more
On November 21, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("NPRM") focused on enhancing FCC review and oversight of the global subsea communications cable network through...more
The recent suspected sabotage of the BCS East-West link fiber optic cable highlighted the challenge of protecting underwater cables from both malicious and negligent actors. As far as patrolling solutions go, in addition to...more
Significant investments are being made in broadband infrastructure with the goal of expanding fiber optic networks into rural and underserved U.S. markets. The high bandwidth and low latency of fiber optics enable efficient...more
Potential rule changes could expand the scope of the disclosure and reporting obligations for applicants and licensees of submarine cables....more
On November 14, 2024, GoNetSpeed, a telecommunications company providing high-speed fiber internet service in nine New England, Mid-Atlantic, and other states, filed a petition with the Massachusetts Department of...more
On August 14, 2023, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a pre-publication version of final guidance implementing the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA).The guidance adds a new Part 184 in 2 C.F.R. and...more
The Build America, Buy America Act generally requires that non-federal government infrastructure projects that benefit from federal government funding impose requirements for the use of domestic iron and steel and...more
On March 3, 2023, the Virginia State Corporation Commission (the “SCC”) issued an Order (the “March 3 Order”) to (i) establish two working groups to consider distributed energy resources (DER) interconnection issues, (ii)...more
In a recent Notice of Inquiry, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) signaled that it may free up radio spectrum for offshore broadband networks and connectivity to land-based systems to support next...more
COVID-19 has created strong incentives for investment in digital infrastructure in Latin America, especially in 5G, private networks, data centers and fiberoptic cables - "In Latin America and the Caribbean, adopting...more
Takeaways - ..The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would provide $65 billion to upgrade US broadband coverage. ..Rural broadband providers using both fiber and wireless technology have an opportunity to expand...more
The continued growth and evolution of the digital economy remains a driver for strong data center growth and development throughout Virginia. As reported in a March 2021 Virginia Business article, a new dark fiber network is...more
In a recent decision, the United States Court of International Trade (CIT), upheld the classification of United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with regard to fiber optic telecommunications modules, finding that...more
In an earlier post, we summarized ALJ McNamara’s recent Summary Determination in Certain UV Curable Coatings For Optical Fibers, Coated Optical Fibers, And Products Containing Same, Inv. No. 337-TA-1031, Order No. 33 (July 6,...more
ALJ Permits Only Minimum Penalties for Failure to File Information Returns - A New York State Administrative Law Judge has rejected the maximum penalties imposed by the Department of Taxation and Finance on an...more
A century ago, our nation had two networks of wires that pretty much went everywhere. One was for electricity, and the other was for telephone calls. Both came to be seen as necessities for modern life. Today, gigabit...more
As Kelley Drye reported in an earlier post, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering rules that would impose on submarine cable system licensees, and possibly users, network outage reporting obligations...more
On Friday, September 18, 2015, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its proposed rules that would require submarine cable licensees to submit reports of network outages. The proposed submarine cable outage...more
This Supplement is intended for use in conjunction with Curtin’s California Land Use & Planning Law, Thirty-Fourth Edition (2014), authored by Perkins Coie attorneys Cecily Talbert Barclay and Matthew S. Gray. In lieu of...more