"...I found [your web site] very informative and a useful resource tool to assist with the policy change we are trying to make in Jamaica..." ---email from Michele Thomas, Director, Policy and Strategic Planning, Spectrum Management Authority, Jamaica
"The rapid adoption of Wi-Fi has pushed prices down and allowed entrepreneurs in developing economies to use off-the-shelf equipment to quickly roll out wireless networks. These new wireless networks usually operate in license-exempt spectrum bands. Policy makers can help spur innovation in these wireless networks by making certain frequency bands license-exempt..." ---Regulatory Reform as a Tool for Bridging the Digital Divide, OECD, 2004
"Open Spectrum" is based on the realization that technology can reduce or even eliminate the need for governments to micro-manage wireless communication. In different contexts it can be viewed as
an ideal of freedom in the use of radio frequencies;
a critique of traditional spectrum management;
a possibility arising from new trends in radio design.
"...more and more policy-makers are questioning the utility of licensing and demanding that licences be adapted to achieve policy goals without hindering market development and technological advancement... The allocation of spectrum for licence-exempt use is increasingly viewed as a catalyst for the development of more efficient and cost effective wireless technologies..." ---Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2004-5: Licensing in an Era of Convergence, International Telecommunication Union, December 2004
Radio Rights
In February 2005, Open Spectrum UK filed comments in an Ofcom consultation, offering a human rights argument against radio licensing. This raised eyebrows as licensing is not often seen in that perspective. More eyebrows were raised when an Irish group, Scagaire, used a similar argument in their comments to ComReg during another consultation a few weeks later.