RF Engineering for Wireless Networks

Appendix 1 Regulatory Issues

1. A Piece of History

Anarchy degenerates into government. If you wait long enough, you get revolution and anarchy, and the cycle starts again. So it is (hopefully only in a metaphorical sense) with radio. After early experiences with anarchy in the use of wireless at sea, culminating in the highly publicized sinking of the Titanic in April 1912, a U.S. law passed in August of that year gave the Secretary of Commerce the responsibility of administering licensing of radio stations within the United States. Broadcast radio in the United States arose around 1921, and the initial legal framework recognized de facto possession of spectrum as constituting a property right: the first broadcaster in any jurisdiction to ...