Online registration is now open for the Technology Policy Institute Aspen Forum, scheduled this year for August 18 – 20.
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Event – The Spectrum Crunch: Causes and Solutions
In his recent paper, “Is There Really a Spectrum Crisis? Quantifying the Factors Affecting Spectrum License Value,” TPI’s Scott Wallsten found that spectrum auction prices increased from 2007 – 2011, suggesting that demand for wireless services outpaced technological improvements in spectrum usage and increases in spectrum supply. Both the Federal Communications Commission and Congress have made moving spectrum into the market a priority. Are the proposed spectrum auctions and release of spectrum for unlicensed uses enough to ease the “crunch”?
Spectrum Prices have Increased over Past Four Years
Spectrum license values have steadily increased over the past five years, explains Scott Wallsten in “Is There Really a Spectrum Crisis? Quantifying the Factors Affecting Spectrum License Value.” From 2007 to 2011, spectrum auction prices in terms of dollars per MHz-pop increased, suggesting that demand for wireless services outpaced technological improvements in spectrum usage. Therefore, Wallsten advises, “The FCC and NTIA should continue to move spectrum into the market and ensure that spectrum already available be able to move smoothly and efficiently through secondary transactions.”
Robert Crandall Joins TPI as Adjunct Senior Fellow
Robert W. Crandall, one of the most prominent industrial organization economists working today, has joined the Technology Policy Institute as an Adjunct Senior Fellow. “Bob has done fundamental research in telecommunications, antitrust and other areas of regulatory policy,” said TPI president Tom Lenard. “We are extremely pleased he is joining us.”
FTC did the right thing on Google
After investigating Google’s search practices for almost two years, the Federal Trade Commission and its staff undoubtedly wanted more than the few voluntary modifications to which Google has agreed. But the Commission demonstrated its professionalism by concluding that the evidence did not support bringing an antitrust case and that no additional remedy was likely to benefit consumers.