The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the government entity that manages the commercial and public radio spectrum in the United States, has proposed making 500 megahertz of spectrum available for broadband within the next 10 years of which 300 MHz between 225 MHz and 3.7 GHz will likely be made available for mobile use within five years. The extra bandwidth, recaptured from broadcasters after the digital television transition, is certainly needed, given that AT&T reports that its mobile broadband traffic has increased 5000 percent over the last three years and that other carriers have also seen significant growth. However, under the current approach to allocating spectrum, this 500 MHz will do little to ease the looming spectrum crunch.

It’s time to rethink the way we allocate spectrum. Under current regulations, spectrum real estate is valuable but exclusive. In the past, that exclusivity was the only way to prevent multiple users from interfering with each other. But advances in radio technology means that today such exclusivity is no longer necessary; instead, it creates false scarcity. So we must change our decades-old approach to managing the public airwaves.

When the FCC began allocating spectrum in the 1930s, radios required wide swaths of spectrum to communicate. Without single players occupying designated bands, a cacophony of interference would have destroyed audio fidelity and later, with television, picture quality.

Today radios that can share spectrum make such protections from interference unnecessary. Just as car drivers can change lanes to avoid congestion, these "smart radios," also called "cognitive radios," are transceivers that listen to available frequencies and communicate over any channels that are currently unused. These radios not only shift frequencies but can also be programmed with the necessary protocols for use in different bands, such as for speaking the "language" of various blocks of spectrum used for Wi-Fi, television, or cellphones. This means that vast swaths of spectrum no longer need be locked into single use, or left unused, as a hedge against interference.

Unfortunately, the FCC’s policies still assume the use of antiquated technology, and therefore that license holders must maintain absolute control of spectrum space at all times. These regulations must be updated to reflect the technological realities of smart radios.