Technology and Culture

Allocating the Spectrum: The Origins ofRadio Regulation HUGH G. J. AITKEN Knowledge of the electromagnetic spectrum isjust over one hundred years old, if we take Heinrich Hertz’s experiments at Karlsruhe in 1887-88 as our point of departure.1 In the years since then, we have accumulated much information about the spectrum, and in the process the spectrum has become an economic resource. Rights of access to the spectrum, or at least to certain segments of it, are now valuable economic assets. Introduction: Spectrum Scarcity One segment of the spectrum has acquired a particular economic significance: this is the radio spectrum, ranging from frequencies of about 20 kHz (kilohertz) at one end to perhaps 300 GHz (gigahertz) at the other.2 The economic significance arises from the fact that we have learned how to use this particular spectral domain for communication. It is only with reference to this segment of the spectrum that concerns about spectrum scarcity have so far been voiced. As a consequence, it is only with reference to this segment that the question of regulation of access by government has become problematic. Scarcity is an elusive concept when applied to the radio spectrum. On the one hand, there are ultimate limits set by the laws of physics. Below At the time of his death on April 14, 1994, Dr. Aitken was Olds Professor of Economics and American Studies (emeritus) at Amherst College. He wished to thank his colleagues Walter Nicholson and Victoria Saker Woeste, his friend Susan Douglas, and the Technology and Culture referees for constructive criticism, and two E-mail correspondents, Brett Steele and Mike Rodemeyer, for assistance and information. 'Heinrich Hertz, Electric Waves, being Researches on the Propagation of Electric Action with Finite Velocity Through Space, authorized English translation by D. E. Jones (London, 1893); John H. Bryant, Heinrich Hertz: The BeginningofMicrowaves: Discovery ofElectromagnetic Waves and Opening of the Electromagnetic Spectrum in the Years 1886-1892 (New York, 1988); and Hugh G.J. Aitken, Syntony and Spark: The Origins of Radio (Princeton, N.J., 1985), pp. 48-79. 2One hertz equals one cycle per second. One kilohertz (kHz) equals 10s cycles per second, one megahertz (MHz) equals 10s cycles per second, and one gigahertz (GHz) equals 10’ cycles per second.© 1994 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040- 165X/94/3504-0002$01.00 686 Allocating the Spectrum: The Origins ofRadio Regulation 687 a certain frequency electromagnetic fields radiate poorly if at all. Above a certain frequency we communicate by infrared or visible light. Within these ultimate limits there are contingent limits set by the state of radio technology at any given time. Technological change, largely in response to the pressure of demand on supply, has typically taken the form of opening up higher and higher frequencies—first the “shortwaves” above 28 MHz, then the VHF and UHF segments, and now microwaves. Spectrum scarcity in that sense has been a recurrent feature of radio history—more urgent at some times than at others, but always present. There is, on the other hand, another sense in which spectrum scarcity results from human institutions. Here property rights and what Adam Smith called “the disposition to truck, barter, and exchange,” rather than the laws of physics or the state of technology, become relevant.5 Spectrum is scarce in the sense that there is not enough of it to give all potential users all they want at a zero price. There is, therefore, a problem of distribution. Spectrum has to be rationed. Rationing can be accomplished either through markets, with prices serving to indicate which demands are most intense and which resources are most scarce, or through some form of governmental or community-based system of allocation. Most contemporary economists appear to prefer the market solution, believing it to be the more efficient way to allocate scarce resources. Given a functioning market, the argument goes, all those wishing to purchase the resource at the market price, and able to do so, will find their demands satisfied. There will be no excess demand at the prevailing price. There will be no queuing. There will be neither a shortage nor a surplus of the scarce...