The future of wireless telecommunications: Spectrum as a critical resource

The area of opportunity in telecommunications has been shifting for the past decade from wire-line 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. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.