Technology, Media & Telecommunications

Our Technology, Media and Telecommunications Practice is one of the most established and respected practices in its field in the Asia Pacific region. With clients originating from all sectors and industries, ranging from state governments and statutory boards to multinational corporations, we have been involved in many large and complex IT, data, privacy, telecommunications, media and cybersecurity projects.

The partners in this practice are highly specialised in this area and lead the market with their expertise, ingenuity and problem solving acuity. They have a penchant for conceptualising new legal services in this area, which have proven to be of immense value to organisations as they navigate the digital economy.

The team is highly regarded and has garnered numerous accolades. They have been consistently ranked Tier 1 in leading publications, such as Chambers Asia-Pacific and The Legal 500 Asia Pacific. They have also been recognised as TMT Law Firm of the Year at the ALB SE Asia Law Awards 2024 and is the only local law firm listed in the State of Legal Innovation in Asia-Pacific (SOLIA) Report 2020.

Data Protection & Cybersecurity

Our market leading tech-savvy practitioners provide the full spectrum of data protection / cybersecurity related services such as:

Privacy & data protection advisory including assisting organisations to comply with local data protection law requirements;
Data protection law compliance audit and consultancy;
Outsourced data protection officer;
One-stop shop legal and technical data protection compliance;
Cybersecurity;
24×7 365 days a year standby incident response, both legal and technical forensics;
Data Breach/Incident response, both legal and technical forensics;
Assistance in investigations by the Personal Data Protection Commission;
Data breach simulation exercise;
Training;
Data licensing and commercialisation;
Protection of confidential information.

We have been a first for many data protection related services such as being the first to conceptualise and launch externalised data protection officer services, being the first to launch a one stop shop combined legal and technical data protection and cybersecurity service, being the first to launch a 24×7 365 days a year standby incident response service, etc.

We have created a one stop shop legal and technical ecosystem to assist clients to navigate the digital economy through the establishment of 2 companies, namely Rajah & Tann Technologies Pte Ltd (RTTech) and Rajah & Tann Cybersecurity Pte Ltd (RTCyber). Through RTTech, we provide valuable products and services to organisations to assist them in their handling or commercialisation of data as part of their business. Through RTCyber, we have created a one stop shop pairing of legal and technical services to provide seamless cybersecurity and data protection solutions to clients. These services are exactly what organisations need in this digital economy.

Financial Technology (FinTech)

Combining the deep knowledge of our financial regulatory and technology expertise, we provide innovative legal solutions that are tailored to the needs of every stakeholder in the FinTech sector; these include financial institutions, FinTech startups, venture capitalists and private equity firms and technology companies, among others. Areas of focus include assisting clients on navigating the licensing and regulatory landscape, application of new FinTech SOP processes, conducting due diligence on new startups, assisting in building bridges with traditional banks’ FinTech labs as well as facilitating and preparing for presentations and meetings with regulators to access funding and product showcase.

Telecommunications Competition and Regulatory

We stay constantly engaged with various regional telecommunications regulators on regulatory compliance matters and have been engaged both by the regulators and by the telecommunications principals in this area of work. Our role also extends to acting as the Secretariat of the Asia Pacific Carrier Coalition.

We have managed various telecommunications regulatory submissions for our clients including engagements by numerous telecommunications service providers and equipment manufacturers to secure telecommunications regulatory clearance in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region for over 10 years.

At state level, the team helped the telecommunications regulator in Brunei formulate a new telecommunications licensing regime, including a regulator’s handbook, telecommunications licences and a competition regime.

On the regional front, our practice has been engaged by the ASEAN Secretariat to facilitate a pan-ASEAN forum on legislative and regulatory reforms to collectively address convergence of IT, telecommunications and broadcasting across all ASEAN member countries.

We work jointly with our firm’s competition practice headed by Kala Anandarajah with regards to telecommunications competition matters in the Asia Pacific region.

Telecommunications Infrastructure

In this area, we have structured complex telecommunications infrastructure procurement agreements based on traditional and PPP models.

We were counsel to various principals in Singapore’s Next Generation National Broadband Network (NGNBN) project.

We were engaged as the lead telecommunications counsel in the first MVNO arrangements in Singapore in 2002 for the US$1 Billion Virgin Mobile MVNO and in the first Malaysian MVNO.

Regionally, we have been engaged in several infrastructure projects such as being involved in one of the largest submarine cable roll-outs in Asia Pacific, the US$1.5 billion Palapa Ring project in Indonesia.

Information Technology Procurement

Since the start of the dot-com era, we’ve been extensively involved in this field. Our broad experience and in-depth knowledge has enabled us to help numerous state level IT major organisations in Malaysia and Indonesia in drafting and negotiating complex IT procurement contracts based on shared services, outsourcing and PPP models. We have also been setting the benchmark as pioneer draftsmen for various cloud computing contract structures both from a vendor and a consumer perspective in the Asia Pacific region.

We travel far and wide to manage projects of this nature, having been involved in various transnational deals with countries including Kazakhstan, Australia, USA, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the People’s Republic of China, New Zealand, Canada, UK and Nigeria.

Information Technology Regulatory

As one of the region’s most experienced teams in this complex and dynamic area, we have been engaged by numerous state level IT regulatory bodies. For example, we have recently been asked by the World Bank to draft the IT legislation for Mongolia. And the same client has also chosen us to lead an electronic commerce legislative benchmarking exercise involving over 20 East Asian and Pacific nations.

Other major international projects include drafting the ICT legislation for the Kingdom of Lesotho in Africa, and working with the World Bank and the UNDP to draft new ICT laws and regulatory policies for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and ICT mandates in Brunei Darussalam and Bangladesh.

We were engaged by the Commonwealth Secretariat in 2008 and 2009 to co-lead an e-government capacity building exercise involving all Caribbean community member nations. Our lawyers have also served on various Singapore government committees to advise on IT regulatory policies in Singapore.

Digital Media – Procurement and Regulatory

We have been involved in major content licensing and digital media matters. We assist our clients in content procurement matters such as in the drafting and negotiating of content license and distribution agreements. We further assist in submitting representation to the Media Development Authority in Singapore and other regional media regulators on behalf of our media clients pertaining to securing the necessary statutory right to broadcast, license or distribute all forms of media both film based and digital in the Asia Pacific region.

E-commerce

We assist organisations in handling the legal challenges of launching or operating their e-commerce platforms and offerings, including advising and providing appropriate terms and conditions, privacy policy, navigating issues related to intellectual property, content, consumer protection, data protection.

With RTCyber, we are able to provide technical security assistance to organisations in ensuring that the security posture of their e-commerce platforms is adequate to ensure the protection of their customer data and compliant with the security requirements of local data protection law.

Recognition

Tier 1 - TMT

The Legal 500 Asia Pacific (2023)
Band 1- TMT

Chambers Asia-Pacific (2023)
Band 2 - Fintech

Chambers Fintech (2022)
Top 100 data practices worldwide

Global Data Review 100 (2022)
Outstanding - Technology and Telecommunications

Asialaw Profiles (2023)
“The team is very familiar with our requirements and has a strong network in the field.”

Chambers Asia-Pacific (2023)
“They are very responsive and have a very strong ability to handle complex and sophisticated matters.”

Chambers Asia-Pacific (2023)
"Rajah & Tann Singapore fields a team with seasoned lawyers who are well placed to provide expertise on telecoms and technology regulatory matters as well as licensing, data protection and data centre projects. Acts for an impressive roster of high-end domestic and multinational social media, electronics and telecoms companies."

Chambers Asia-Pacific (2022)

"Rajah & Tann Singapore fields a team with seasoned lawyers who are well placed to provide expertise on telecoms and technology regulatory matters as well as licensing, data protection and data centre projects. Acts for an impressive roster of high-end domestic and multinational social media, electronics and telecoms companies."

Chambers Asia-Pacific (2022)