WCDMA

Texas Instruments supplies about two-thirds of the world's chips for phones using GSM, the second-generation standard for wireless communications. It now also makes chips for a new generation of phones using WCDMA, the 3G upgrade for GSM that allows for data-rich functions like live broadcast streaming and video downloads. WCDMA services are widely used In Japan's NTT DoCoMo. The wider spectrum CDMA may now be at or near operation in Europe's Vodafone, Australia's Telstra Corp., and France Telecom's Orange .

Governments, however, continue to auction licensed spectrum at astronomical prices. This hidden tax, a tax that's in the billions, burdens the business community and end user with costs for free speech and basic communication. The enormous licensing cost also delays development and deployment of band-width by decades. Arguably the country that ends the practice of scarcitizing bandwidth through extortion by the auction process will leap ahead of the others in technology and economic growth.

The most punishing consequence of the auctioning off of spectrum, however lies with the incumbent monopolistic cartel of phone companies' ability to squeeze out the competition by bidding up the auction to these nearly insurmountable rates. There thus results an unspoken collusion between the tax minded bureaucracy and the monopoly to further promote the auction/licensing process. The extent of, what is surely a violation of anti trust, intent if not law, looms so great that the hidden agenda seems all but invisible. Hello!