MICRO ECONOMICS

IEEE Micro, May/June 2009, pp. 4–6

color spectrum grid

The Revolution in Spectrum Allocation

by Shane Greenstein

Some aspects of the wireless telephone revolution are obvious. Long elevator rides no longer involve the car’s inhabitants awkwardly staring at the floor numbers over the door. Today everyone looks down at their phones, texts a friend, reads their email, or twitters.

At the end of 2007 (the latest data) the US Federal Communications Commission estimates there were 263 million wireless subscribers (almost 2.3 subscriptions per household in the US). Subscribers used an average of 769 minutes per month, generating US$0.06 average revenue per minute for all traffic ($0.05 for voice traffic). The FCC also estimates that 14.5 percent of US households received their primary service exclusively through a wireless phone.

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