lishes a national table of frequency allocations that sets out what radio services can use which frequency bands and under what conditions, and coordinates these allocations with neighboring countries.<sup>12</sup> Rules are set for each band, specifying eligibility and service restrictions, power limits, build-out requirements, fees, and other conditions of use. Frequencies are assigned to individual users on exclusive or shared basis for particular services and technologies, and authorizations are issued for radio equipment and operators. Compliance of spectrum users with allocations, rules, and authorizations is monitored and enforced.

# **2.2 Advantages and Limitations**

A major advantage of government administration of the radio spectrum is that it is well established. It has been in place worldwide for over 100 years, originating in the early days of radio communication.<sup>13</sup> A wealth of experience has built up, mainly in high-income countries but more recently also in middle-income and low-income countries. Good practices are well documented. For example, an online spectrum management toolkit developed by infoDev, a multidonor grant facility administered by the World Bank, in cooperation with the ITU, contains an annotated selection of over 200 reference documents mainly reflecting modern government administration of the radio spectrum. Specialized software, equipment, and technical assistance are readily available.

Government administration, where well implemented, has proven to be effective in coordinating use of the spectrum to prevent harmful interference, at both national and international levels (Analysys etal. 2004). Authorizations to use the spectrum typically specify what transmission equipment may be used, its location, bandwidth, modulation type, and maximum power radiated.<sup>14</sup> By setting conditions for all users this way, the levels of interference can be modeled through engineering analysis and maintained at acceptable levels within the geographical and frequency boundaries of each authorization.

Government administration has also been used successfully to manage spectrum used by the government for purposes such as defense, public safety, and aeronautical and maritime communications.<sup>15</sup> And it did well managing spectrum used for public telecommunications services while these were provided by a small number of companies and both services and technology changed fairly slowly.<sup>16</sup> In the last ten years, however, government administration has had increasing difficulty responding to fast growth of spectrum demand, new technologies, and changing markets. Convergence among telecommunications, media, and computing is breaking down the traditional

> 12Coordination with neighboring countries mainly seeks to prevent cross-border interference in compliance with international commitments, as well as facilitate services that span several countries such as mobile roaming. 13All countries have some form of government administration of the spectrum at the national level set in the context of ITU and other international commitments.

> 14Emissions of a radio transmitter are authorized at specific frequencies and bandwidths. Limits are set for out-ofband and spurious emissions.

> 15In developing countries, spectrum management is often also seen as a way to ensure national sovereignty.

> 16In such situations, the spectrum authority could reasonably have as good an understanding of the best use of spectrum as the market itself and hence could sensibly control all aspects of spectrum use (Ofcom 2005b).

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