The future of wireless telecommunications: Spectrum as a critical resource

The area of opportunity in telecommunications has been shifting for the past decade from wireline to wireless systems. To accommodate this outpouring of technical and market creativity, wireless systems need access to the electromagnetic spectrum. Unfortunately, the US (and the world) is stuck in a system of allocating this spectrum by government bureaucracy. There are several competing views of how we may free up spectrum by moving away from this “command and control” system: a property rights regime and a commons regime. In this paper, I review the promise of wireless and compare the proposed alternative regimes.