The struggle for co-existence: communication policy by private technical standards making and its limits in unlicensed spectrum

Abstract

Huge increase in the demand by the wireless sector to use the airwaves has trained focus on the classic policy problem of resource scarcity in the field. This article illuminates a part of wireless communication–unlicensed spectrum–where a particularly fractious debate over the future usage of such space has developed between incumbent Wi-Fi interests and new entrants from the field of licensed mobile communication. The case is novel in that private technical standards making has become a site aimed at resolving what is a contest for co-existence in unlicensed spectrum. In its conceptualisation of private technical standards making processes as communication policy activity, the article illuminates both their affordances and limitations. It also shows the enduring utility of public regulatory steer in what are, in effect, private self-regulatory processes aimed at creating solutions to problems with a complex socio-technical character.