AUCTIONING THE AIRWAVES - THE CONTEST FOR BROAD-BAND PCS SPECTRUM

The House and Senate of the United States Congress recently passed leg islation that directs the FCC to establish a system for using auctions to allocate the use of radio spectrum for personal communications ser vices. There is a unique and unprecedented set of issues that arise in this context, which are of interest to economists, industry analysts, regulators, and policymakers. We discuss these issues and evaluate th eir likely impact on the outcome of the spectrum auctions. In addition , we argue that there may be pitfalls in the auction procedure adopted by the FCC, and we discuss possible alternative procedures.