The challenge of balancing private sector and government spectrum use

Abstract

In a book on spectrum policy written by the pioneers of contemporary spectrum policy in the United Kingdom, the issue of public sector spectrum management is introduced by saying "Spectrum is used to produce services which are supplied by firms for commercial reasons and distributed into a market place, and to provide public service such as defence and emergency services which are usually provided free at the point of delivery by a public body." [1] This commercial/public use of spectrum highlights the challenge of how to divide it equitably, effectively, and rationally between government users and private sector users. While in engineering we expect to find analytic solutions to maximize some figure of merit, this is more of an "apples and oranges" problem. There is now growing interest in considering economic tools rather than purely administrative processes in determining the division of spectrum between these two types of users.