Spectrum has become the currency of the Internet Age. As high tech businesses jockey for position to offer new wireless services based on new applications of spectrum, many questions remain unanswered about the role of the federal government in managing this resource.
How, if at all, should the federal government be involved in administering spectrum? How are the politics of spectrum influencing the net neutrality debate? How can spectrum be endowed with greater property rights? How does spectrum policy affect the ability of American businesses to compete internationally?
On June 6, Professor Thomas Hazlett, former chief economist of the Federal Communications Commission and author of The Political Spectrum: The Tumultuous Liberation of Wireless Technology, from Herbert Hoover to the Smartphone, addressed these questions and more. The Political Spectrum is the definitive history of the regulation of spectrum in the United States. Prof. Hazlett and Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Harold Furchtgott-Roth conducted a sweeping discussion on spectrum policy, deregulation, and the new direction of the FCC.
