Can you put a social value on spectrum?

If the market is perceived as the most efficient way of allocating frequencies is it possible to value the wider public policy initiatives which require spectrum usage? It's a hotly contested area, as the UK is finding out.

'You can't buck the market.' That is an expression which in the UK has become firmly associated in people's minds with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Her attachment to free-market economics had a major impact on the country in the 1980s. Fast forward to 2007, and it is beginning to seem like the phrase has been adopted as the motto of UK telecoms regulator Ofcom.

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http://www.policytracker.com/alerts.php?tact=557