None of this seems to have cooled the ambition of the players, however. That's a lot of money. Too much, perhaps. If, as the Clinton Administration argues, the so-called information infrastructure is the highway that will lead the U.S. to new prosperity, then driving up the cost of that infrastructure may be counterproductive. Granting licenses to the highest bidders is not always the best way to encourage ingenuity.
Some critics question the wisdom of licensing frequencies at all.
George Gilder, writing in Forbes ASAP last April, issued a plea to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt to call off the auctions altogether. According to Gilder, there is no need to parcel out radio bands, because future improvements in computers will ensure that there are plenty to go around. This is not a theoretical argument. A handful of entrepreneurs are already manufacturing equipment that uses spread-spectrum techniques to pump data through unlicensed frequencies now set aside for such things as microwave ovens and amateur radios. Some of the wireless cowboys were in an uproar last week over a new FCC plan to sell those unlicensed frequencies.