Summary
Auctioning the air waves
The FCC's auction of radio and telecommunications airwaves should have been started long ago to increase revenues. The 1994 auction gave the government about $9 billion. Before this, the government was too influenced by special interests to consider an auction.See the full content of this document
Extract
Halting the air raid.
The legacy of the great Manhattan swindle - when Dutch traders bought the island for just $24 - haunts more than Native Americans. For centuries thereafter, swashbuckling entrepreneurs and massive corporations have paid only a pittance for public land rights. Even today, mining companies and ranchers pay far below fair value for the rights to public resources.
But with the inventions of radio, television, and the latest corporate toy, the cellular phone, it is no longer just the country's land being usurped by business, but its air as we...See the full content of this document
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