--- Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 09:32:37 -0500 From: "Stuart Benjamin" <benjamin@private> To: <declan.mccullagh@private> Subject: Law Review Article on Private vs Government Control of the Spectrum I have followed your work, and your debates with Larry Lessig (among others), over the years. In any event, I have written a law review article that might interest you. It's called "Spectrum Abundance and the Choice Between Private and Public Control" and it came out in the latest New York University Law Review. Here is the abstract: Prominent commentators recently have proposed that the government allocate significant portions of the radio spectrum for use as a wireless commons. The problem for commons proposals is that truly open access leads to interference, which renders a commons unattractive. Those advocating a commons assert, however, that a network comprising devices that operate at low power and repeat each other’s messages can eliminate the interference problem. They contend that this possibility renders a spectrum commons more efficient than privately owned spectrum, and in fact that private owners would not create these “abundant networks” in the first place. In this Article, Professor Benjamin argues that these assertions are not well founded, and that efficiency considerations favor private ownership of spectrum. Those advocating a commons do not propose a network in which anyone can transmit as she pleases. The abundant networks they envision involve significant control over the devices that will be allowed to transmit. On the question whether private entities will create these abundant networks, commons advocates emphasize the transaction costs of aggregating spectrum, but those costs can be avoided via allotment of spectrum in large swaths. The comparative question of the efficiency of private versus public control, meanwhile, entails an evaluation of the implications of the profit motive (enhanced ability and desire to devise the best networks, but also the desire to attain monopoly power) versus properties of government action (the avoidance of private monopoly, but also a cumbersome process that can be subject to rent-seeking). Professor Benjamin contends that, on balance, these considerations favor private control. An additional factor makes the decision clearer: Abundant networks might not develop as planned, and so the flexibility entailed by private ownership—as well as the shifting of the risk of failure from taxpayers to shareholders—makes private ownership the better option. The unattractiveness of a commons for abundant networks casts serious doubt on the desirability of spectrum commons more generally. If private ownership is a more efficient means of creating abundant networks, then the same is almost certainly true for networks that run the risk of interference. Most uses of spectrum are subject to interference, so the failure of the commons advocates’ arguments undermines the appeal of a commons for most potential uses of spectrum. The URL for the article is http://www.nyu.edu/pages/lawreview/78/6/benjamin..html. I would be happy to send you a hard copy, as well. Anyway, I hope you find it interesting. Please feel free to post it to politechbot, or otherwise circulate it, if you think that's appropriate. Stuart M. Benjamin Professor of Law Duke Law School Box 90360 Science Drive and Towerview Road Durham, NC 27708-0360 benjamin@private (919) 613-7275 (phone) (919) 613-7231 (fax) _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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