Opinion: UK spectrum reform - the verdict from the licence-free community

The amount of spectrum allocated to licence-free use is usually an arbitrary regulatory decision. But is there another way? Yes, argues Robert Horvitz, who was recently asked to give his assessment of spectrum reform in the UK.

The consultancies looking at "collective use of spectrum" for the European Commission last year concluded that "most decisions on whether to designate spectrum for collective use will need to be made administratively". But they also noted that this is not a good solution, mainly because regulatory decision-making is neither transparent nor objective and harmonising the results of the decisions takes too long. Professor Martin Cave recently called the administrative approach to allocating licence-exempt spectrum "arbitrary and unsatisfactory". <a href="#notes"> (1)</a>

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