Hats Not Off to Spectrum Caps

There has been some discussion lately about spectrum caps, which to us seems to be a policy at odds with reality and at war with other deeply desired policy objectives.

Capping spectrum would be much like doing the same with computer speed. Being generous, we won’t compare it to a Commodore Computer Cap, and only say it would be like setting a computer cap based on a 1992 computer's specs - it would be like adopting a cap of 4 MB RAM and a 40 MB hard-drive and saying that no new applications can be written requiring more than that.

Or you can compare it to limiting the number of lanes for a highway – like saying no highway should be more than two lanes, no matter how many people need to use it.  Two lanes for the Beltway, anybody?

Spectrum caps ignore the fact that capacity (and speed) are a function of not only technology, but of applications, demand, and spectrum. Are spectrum cap advocates eager to limit the speed of downloads and uploads? Do they favor preventing the development of new applications that are - heaven forbid - more spectrum intensive? Should service providers and developers only introduce applications that will appeal to a very few customers, so that more spectrum won't be required since demand is so low? 

Another way of thinking about spectrum caps is to compare it to restricting the number of coffee shops a company could have in a given city. No matter how good their coffee was and how much people wanted it, you could only go to one or two places to get it. The lines and wait would be long, and many people who wanted that great coffee would be denied. Coffee drinkers certainly wouldn't stand for that, and wireless consumers shouldn't have to tolerate the inferior climate spectrum caps could create, either.

Analog AMPS-based cellular service was a limited application - voice only - but even there demand wildly exceeded expectations, and new technologies, and more spectrum, wound-up being required to meet the number of would-be users and deliver the wide variety of applications people proved to want.

In fact, a key question should be: is a spectrum cap compatible with the desire for universal broadband service?

Spectrum caps sound great in theory, if you assume every possible application can be done for everyone with a fixed resource. But with reality in mind, a spectrum cap is a rigid constraint. And while the genius of wireless has been innovation, the harder you make it to do things, the more  investors look elsewhere.