The Wireless Craze, The Unlimited Bandwidth Myth, The Spectrum Auction Faux Pas, and the Punchline to Ronald Coase's "Big Joke": An Essay on Airwave Allocation Policy
Thomas W. Hazlett
George Mason University Dept. of Economics and School of Law
January 2001
AEI-Brookings Joint Center Working Paper No. 01-2
Abstract:
In 1959 the Federal Communications Commission invited economist Ronald Coase to testify about his proposal for market allocation of radio spectrum rights. The FCC's first question: "Is this all a big joke?" Today, however, leading policy makers - including the current FCC Chair - decry the "spectrum drought" produced by administrative allocation and call for the creation of private bandwidth markets. This essay examines marketplace trends driving regulators' change of humor, and considers the path of spectrum policy liberalization in light of emerging technologies, theories of unlimited bandwidth, reforms such as FCC license auctions, and recent progress in deregulating wireless markets in the U.S. and around the globe.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 210
working papers series
Suggested Citation
Hazlett, Thomas W., The Wireless Craze, The Unlimited Bandwidth Myth, The Spectrum Auction Faux Pas, and the Punchline to Ronald Coase's "Big Joke": An Essay on Airwave Allocation Policy (January 2001). AEI-Brookings Joint Center Working Paper No. 01-2. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=286932 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.286932
