Unlicensed White Space Use as an Airwave “Freeze”
Professors Tom Hazlett and Vernon Smith have an op ed piece in the Oct. 3rd edition of the Wall Street Journal entitled “Don’t Let Google Freeze the Airwaves.” Apparently advocacy by Google, Microsoft, the New America Foundation and others in favor of unlicensed access to unused broadcast television channels freezes out even better reallocation of spectrum that could eventually be auctioned off for highly efficient private use.
Professors Hazlett and Smith appear to think private, unlicensed use could not possibly be as efficient as the command and control provided by a single owner keen on recouping its investments. Using the Professors’ rationale, would unlicensed Wi-Fi home network operators be better off if a single venture secured the 2.4 GHz band and packaged innovative home networking “solutions”? Not for me.