The need

Attorneys defending a city against a lawsuit brought by several telecommunications companies needed an expert in the Telecommunications Act to make their case. The Telecommunications Act was enacted to allow any communications company to compete in any market. It was relevant to this case as the suit alleged unjust enrichment and violation of the Act as the city experienced a significant increase in underground conduit fees. As such, the ideal expert would need to be able to opine on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) formula for municipal utility providers regarding conduit fees and its applicability to the case as well as conduct an economic analysis of the FCC formula.

Our approach

From conversations with the attorneys, we knew that the expert would need to be well-credentialed as they wanted someone that met or exceeded the caliber of the plaintiff’s expert. We went to work to meet their expectations.

The expert

We found an expert with extensive experience in the telecommunications industry who was also a professor of Economics at a prominent university. In his academic work, his primary areas of research were economics of networks and public utility regulation. He was experienced in analyzing the cost of providing telecommunications services to the public and highly knowledgeable of the FCC rate formula for conduit attachments and could analyze how the rate was implemented. Additionally, he had served as an outside consultant to the FCC and had analyzed the cost of placing conduits. Furthermore, he had wide knowledge of telecommunications history and could speak to the risks and costs of municipalities of placing conduits underground. Well respected in his field, he had served as an economist to state public utility organizations and had authored several publications on telecommunications economic issues related to pricing. Finally, he had been in expert witness in telecommunications matters and had prior testimony experience.