Supercommons: Toward a Unified Theory of Wireless Communication

MarcusGarvey

Kevin Werbach makes some good arguments which will surely annoy every telco.

It's an 88-page law review article calling for a fundamental reformulation of wireless spectrum policy. (This is American biased but when they make wireless policy it affects us too )

I argue that we should no longer treat spectrum as a concrete physical resource, because new communications technologies don't require exclusive control of frequencies. The implications are profound. A universal entry privilege, allowing anyone to transmit anywhere, at any time, in any way, should be the policy baseline.

To resolve interference disputes, we can use a set of backstops and safe harbors drawn from tort and intellectual property law. Exclusive property rights only add unnecessary transaction costs and create artificial scarcity. The "supercommons" represents a vast opportunity to enhance communications capacity and open up access to the airwaves.

459K PDF of it available here.