Policymakers in Brussels and elsewhere in Europe are focusing on spectrum trading as a way to make more efficient and flexible use of radio frequencies. European satellite companies are getting nervous and asking what is in it for them except more fragmentation and more market barriers across the many national borders. The relatively new rules for telecommunications regulation in Europe, called the electronic communications framework, provide that European Union (EU) member states can, if they wish, permit trading of rights to use radio spectrum. Relatively few limits are set―member states must define at the outset whether rights to use spectrum can be traded, keep public records and not permit trades to change the use of spectrum that has been harmonized across Europe.
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