

Chris Sacca on freeing the airwaves - marketer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sPOYIHAEsI&feature=user

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fharper1961
What I don't grasp, is how it would be possible to avoid the free spectrum
being abused in a tragedy of the commons scenario?

Being able to send e-mail around the world for free was great... until
spammers made it less great by abusing the system.

~~~
marketer
I think this is a great example of legitimate vs. illegitimate use. The
benefits of opening up this spectrum greatly outweighs the negative aspects.
Same with e-mail - the benefits are much greater than the negative uses.

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bilbo0s
This is a tough problem, because there are so many issues that need to be
considered when deciding whether or not to give out free spectrum. The most
important, in my estimation, is whether the revenue lost from license fees
would be offset by taxes gained on the new economic activity generated by the
entrepreneurial use of said spectrum. I would need a good deal of data in
order to make this call.

Although it is true that the US has the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the
developed world at around 35%, we actually collect very little revenue from
it. The reason being that the high tax rate encourages some tax sheltering
activity and other bad behavior that, in the end, costs us revenue. So even if
the new economic activity is generated, we have strong historical evidence
that new tax revenue from that activity would be somewhat less than
forthcoming.

Why do we need the revenue? A large national debt. Additionally, it seems,
that this debt will only get larger over the next 10 years whoever wins the
election. About 3 or 4 trillion in growth under Obama, and between 4 and 5
trillion in growth under McCain.

On the other hand, perhaps the new economic activity would generate a sizable
windfall. Even accounting for the inevitable tax sheltering that corporations
will engage in.

I think we need some REALLY expensive data to make this call.

In short, my choice would be driven by a desire to keep our national checkbook
balanced. Or more precisely, to use the spectrum to generate revenues that may
begin the process of bringing our national checkbook back into balance. I
realize I am very much in the minority here, that said, I think it's a useful
way to look at the issue.

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daveambrose
Having an alternate point of view like Sacca is needed in this ecosystem. The
company that I work for is in the process of developing a global mobile
capability/division and surprisingly (or unsurprisingly if you understand the
marketing communications industry), none of the mobile/wireless vendors I met
with discussed the spectrum debate here in the states.

There's a disconnect between policy and actuality within the US mobile space
today. It's unfortunate our infrastructure and thinking isn't along the lines
of Japan's or at least in the immediate hope of getting there.

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marketer
Sanjit Biswas (Meraki founder) is also interesting:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wikV9IAyzSA&feature=user](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wikV9IAyzSA&feature=user)

