Spectrum Policy for the Emerging Ultrabroadband World

SPECTRUM POLICY FOR THE EMERGING ULTRABROADBAND WORLD
[SOURCE: New America Foundation, AUTHOR: J.H. Snider]
Imagine a world with finite spectrum but infinite demand for wireless bandwidth. In such a world, which we shall call the wireless ultrabroadband world, what would the wireless telecommunications architecture look like? And what type of property rights regime would accompany it? No telecommunications architecture following known laws of nature could provide infinite wireless bandwidth. But this paper argues that the architecture that would get closest would be one with very short wireless end user links attached to a wired backbone. It further argues that in such a world the most efficient property rights regime for spectrum management would be one that bundles rights to use spectrum with rights of possession to tangible property. Contrast this world to the wireless narrowband world in which we currently live in, where demand for wireless bandwidth is relatively modest, wireless links correspondingly large, and the most efficient property rights regime for spectrum management is predominantly one that unbundles spectrum and tangible property rights.
http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/spectrum_policy_emerging_ultrabroadband_world