Andrew Sharpe
Andrew Sharpe is Legal Counsel for Europe at Orange Business Services. Previously he was Head of LexisPSL Commercial. He has particular experience in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors. He regularly lectures on data protection, freedom of information and various IT and telecommunications regulatory issues. He qualified at Taylor Wessing in 1999, and spent time at Clifford Chance and Blake Lapthorn before joining Charles Russell. He was a partner at Charles Russell from 2007.
He co-authored a chapter in the Freedom of Information Handbook (second edition, 2008) as well as two chapters in the Commercial Law Handbook (2009) published by the Law Society. He contributed a chapter to the third edition of Telecommunications Law and Regulation in 2009. He is a regular contributor of articles to Privacy and Data Protection Journal, Freedom of Information Journal and Computer Law & Security Report.
Practice Areas
Panels
- Consulting Editorial Board
- Contributing Author
Qualified Year
- 1999
Education
- King's College London, University of London, Bournemouth University, University of Southampton
2 Contributions by Andrew Sharpe
PRACTICE NOTES
UK fixed-line telecoms: networks, interconnection, local loop unbundling, broadband, wholesale access, NGNs, cloud and SDN—an at-a-glance guide for commercial lawyers
This Practice Note provides a concise, at-a-glance overview of the fixed line telecoms industry for commercial lawyers.
Fixed lines
Section 32(1) of the Communications Act 2003 defines an ‘electronic communications network’ as:
a transmission system conveying signals of any description by electrical, magnetic or electro-magnetic energy; and
associated items used by the provider, in association with that system, for the conveyance of the signals, comprising:
apparatus forming part of the system;
apparatus for switching or routing the signals;
software and stored data; and
other resources (except for the purposes of sections 125 to 127), including network elements that are not active.
For fixed lines, this encompasses electrical energy in standard conducting cables or wires; electro-magnetic energy within coaxial cables, which can be treated as a kind of waveguide; or light photons for the laser light employed in fibre optics cables.
The most common form of telecoms cable is a bundle of unshielded twisted pairs (UTP). A UTP is a pair of copper wires, twisted to reduce...
TMT
PRACTICE NOTES
UK wireless telecoms guide for commercial lawyers: mobile networks (2G-5G), satellite, Wi-Fi, WiMAX and LPWAN essentials
Mobile networks
This Practice Note delivers a concise, quick-reference overview of the wireless telecoms sector for commercial lawyers. Mobile electronic communications networks are commonly called cellular networks because they consist of a mosaic of cells, arranged to let the network exploit its allocated frequency spectrum with maximum efficiency. A cell is the coverage area served by a base station (BS), and neighbouring cells operate on different frequencies to reduce channel interference. In rural locations, cells span wider areas than in dense urban settings, where additional capacity is needed.
GSM networks
Global System for Mobile communications (GSM—so named as a backronym, the original title being Groupe Spécial Mobile) is the most widespread network standard. GSM is regarded as 2G (second generation, with the first generation being analogue mobile networks). 2G has evolved from the platform first rolled out in 1991, through the arrival of the packet data capability, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), in 1997 (therefore 2.5G), and further with higher packet data rates from 1999 via the Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) standard (therefore 2.75G, though at times described as a 3G technology—see below). GPRS supports data transmission at typical, sustained and peak mobile data rates starting from...
TMT
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