Bureaucrats cannot know better than entrepreneurs how to use the spectrum. Consumers should not be forced to pay more for mobile phone service because the government thinks that the part of the spectrum that could be used for mobile telephony should be used only for advanced television. Furthermore, the current spectrum allocation system allows citizens to benefit from the use of assigned portions of the spectrum only temporarily. Users of the spectrum get licenses, not full property rights. As residents of the former Soviet Union learned the hard way, private property rights are central to a thriving economy.
Temporary licenses make investment in the industry more risky and less rewarding.
Rights in spectrum should be full property rights, freely transferable. Different bits of telecommunications hardware, such as switches, television sets, and telephones, need to be compatible with the rest of the telecommunications network. So the industry needs standards that operate well without being too expensive. Government cannot do better than entrepreneurs in choosing industry standards. Recognizing that, the FCC refused to decide whether digital phone systems should use time division multiple access or code division multiple access technology.