There is a deep body of economic theory that argues that it&#x27;s much more efficient to simply auction off spectrum than to have a government agency make decisions about &quot;who will provide the best or cheapest service&quot; using that spectrum. Indeed, the old model of licensing spectrum to who the FCC thought of as the best users resulted in the current problem of prime spectrum being allocated to low-value uses like broadcast television.<p>Tom Hazlett&#x27;s papers are a good introduction into the orthodox view of spectrum economics: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;papers.ssrn.com&#x2F;sol3&#x2F;papers.cfm?abstract_id=1583098" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;papers.ssrn.com&#x2F;sol3&#x2F;papers.cfm?abstract_id=1583098</a>.