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Sonia Aliprandi
Sonia is a Consultant of GLS Group. She was an Australian-qualified regulatory, corporate and competition law lawyer with over 15 years of experience gained in top-tier Australian law firms and in senior roles in-house heading legal and regulatory functions for Australasian and international telecommunications providers. Sonia has held an in-house position with the incumbent telecommunications provider in Australia (Telstra), advising on commercial, regulatory and litigation matters. She also headed the regulatory function in Australia for AAPT and Telecom New Zealand. She has also been head of the legal and regulatory function for Elders Telecommunications which, with Optus (number 2 player), won the right to roll-out an Australian national broadband network. Sonia’s most recent in-house role was heading the legal and regulatory function at Qtel group advising on competition law, regulatory, corporate and commercial matters in a range of jurisdictions across the MENA region and South Asia.
Indicative Experience
Qatar: Providing strategic and regulatory and corporate advice at group level to Boards and regionally-based teams. Negotiating with regulators.
Oman: Establish and advising on corporate governance practices, license interpretation, advocacy with regulators and inter-carrier disputes.
Palestine: Advising on the entry of the second telecommunications provider and disputes with the incumbent regarding interconnection and access.
Kuwait: Advising on and drafting and negotiating interconnection and access agreements and general regulatory matters.
Indonesia: Advising on strategic regulatory policy approach. Negotiating and drafting commercial arrangements with the incumbent.
Philippines: Advising on the entry of a new player in the telecommunications industry and preparing regulatory lobbying documents for Government.
Australia: Advising NBN Co (National Broadband Network) and JV on competition law and commercial aspects of the roll-out of a national broadband network.
New Zealand: Advising on regulatory and commercial matters, including access, interconnection disputes before regulators and on an inter-carrier disputes.
Global: Coordinating the regulatory affairs of Qtel across 17 jurisdictions throughout the Middle East North Africa (MENA) and South Asian regions.
Operator agreements: Drafting and negotiating agreements with other operators (e.g. access, interconnection and wholesale agreements).
Australia: Providing advice on the regulatory and competition law aspects of $1.1B broadband network project including negotiating funding, operational agreements for retail and wholesale supply.
Government submissions: Preparing submissions and appearing before Australian and New Zealand (and other international) regulators and Government bodies on competition law and policy issues.
New Zealand: Acting before the regulator on access disputes including against Vodafone on the pricing of a mobile terminating access service and preparing submissions on policy issues such as competition law effects of bundling, local call resale, PSTN interconnection, unconditioned local loop service and line sharing.
New Zealand: Advising the new entrant in New Zealand on an interconnection agreement and preparing submissions on an internet grade ADSL bit stream service in the context of local loop unbundling.
Interconnection: Drafting and negotiating interconnection, access and wholesale agreements for Ooredoo Group including in Oman, Kuwait, Palestine, Tunisia and Indonesia.
Interconnection: Drafting interconnection agreements between Telecom New Zealand and Australian incumbent, Telstra.
Interconnection dispute: Acting for Telstra on a range of access disputes with access seekers on interconnection and other access issues.
Professional Qualifications
Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia
Prior Positions
Ooredoo Group, Doha
Director Regulatory - Legal (2008-2012)
Elders Communications, Sydney
Regulatory and General Counsel (2006-2008)
Gilbert & Tobin, Sydney, Sydney
Senior Lawyer (2005-2006)
Telecom New Zealand, Auckland
Regulatory Counsel (2002-2005)
Telstra, Australia (Secondment from MSJ)
Lawyer (2000-2001)
Education
University of Sydney
Economics Law - Honours (1993)
College of Law - Sydney
Graduate Diploma of Practical Legal Training (1994)
Key Strengths
Generates clear solution pathways
Focussed on achieving business outcomes
Extensive international experience
Exceptional lobbying capabilties
Quick to adapt to changing circumstances
Expertise
Documentation Engineering
Process Efficiency Consultancy
Resource Leverage Consultancy
Standardisation Based Efficiency
Other
