The end of spectrum scarcity [spectrum allocation and utilization]

This article discusses the issues of spectrum allocation and the effect of new technologies on spectrum utilization. To understand the impact new radio technologies are having on spectrum availability, it is helpful first to address a common misconception: that spectrum is a concrete and finite resource. Not so. Radio waves do not pass through some ethereal medium called "spectrum"; they are the medium. What is licensed by governments is not a piece of a finite pie but simply the right to deploy transmitters and receivers that operate in particular ways. Moreover, interference is not some inherent property of spectrum. It is a property of devices. A better receiver will pick up a transmission where an earlier one heard only static. Whether a new radio system "interferes" with existing ones is entirely dependent on the equipment involved. Consequently, the extent to which there appears to be a spectrum shortage largely depends not on how many frequencies are available but on the technologies that can be deployed.