Feyo Sickinghe

I am a Principal Regulatory Counsel in our Regulatory & Public Affairs practice in the Netherlands and Brussels. I have a focus on tech and comms and digital markets regulation, drawing on in-depth business knowledge and extensive experience in TMT and public administration.

With over 25 years of experience in the electronic communications sector, I am Principal Regulatory counsel in our team. I represent industry groups of the main telecoms operators in the Netherlands and in the EU in relation to the development and implementation of new legislation and regulation. I brought 10 years of previous regulatory experience in the telecommunications sector when I joined Bird & Bird in 2007. I founded two industry groups of telecoms operators. I am chairman of the Dutch Rights of Way Association (www.groepgraafrechten.nl) and an industry group consisting of Delta Fiber Nederland, KPN, T-Mobile/Tele2 and VodafoneZiggo. My experience formed the basis for starting the Bird & Bird international regulatory and public affairs group.

I advise on strategic, regulatory and policy views in legislative procedures and lobby at the national and EU level on issues regarding the transposition of the European Electronic Communications Code into national law and the ongoing review of the Cost Reduction Directive (Infrastructure Connectivity Act), numbering issues, transparency, security, rights of way and access. I provide advice regarding the regulatory aspects of the platform and data economy (European Digital Services Package – Data Governance Act, Data Act, Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act) cybersecurity and artificial intelligence regulation. I am a frequent speaker at conferences and webinars and give trainings to clients with respect to data regulation and the implementation thereof.

I also play a key role as coordinator of large multi-jurisdictional tenders for the firm.

• Representation of client's regulatory interests with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, ACM, parliament and on EU level.