Economic Considerations for Dynamic Spectrum Access Decisions

The advent of commercial fifth generation (5G) and advanced government systems is exponentially increasing near-term demand for wireless service, yet radio frequency (RF) spectrum remains a practically finite supply. The balance between public, private, and unlicensed spectrum use is now at a critical point where systematic approaches need to be identified and applied to balance the multitude of growing demands on spectrum resources. The economic value of spectrum and spectrum access will be a key element of helping spectrum stakeholders make decisions to efficiently and effectively manage spectrum. Economic analysis can inform decision-makers about the impacts of investments, tradeoffs, and alternatives to support more efficient and effective use of spectrum.This conceptual paper highlights economic assessments to enable more flexibility within the spectrum space through the introduction of sharing and dynamic spectrum access (DSA) systems. It applies economic principles that can be leveraged to balance the allocation of federal and non-federal spectrum. The paper then discusses two complementary approaches for quantifying impacts - to reach a risk-reward balance - of DSA decisions. Decision-makers can choose the approach, or combination of approaches, most applicable to their environment. Such techniques can be applied to assess alternative scenarios or use cases to inform upfront spectrum decisions regarding sharing and DSA systems.