Regulation vs. entrepreneurs in spectrum

This piece by Thomas Hazlett, Would last TV station turn out the lights?, shows how silly FCC regulations are hurting entrepreneurialism to the benefit of vested interests. Excerpts:

Broadcast stations’ volunteering to go dark sends a clear signal. Over-the-air transmissions are becoming useless, not worth the cost of firing up the transmitter.

Yet the spectacle of digital television (DTV) is most incredible because radio spectrum — the use of which constitutes the overwhelming majority of station costs — is provided to stations free of charge. Because the government awards frequencies and bars unauthorized uses, licensees have no opportunity to divert bandwidth to new services. By protecting a video delivery system mapped out in the 1940s, regulators spike the emergence of advanced networks that could revolutionize communications. ...

Allowing the TV band to be tied up for another decade ignores the enormous social value of spectrum. Wireless networks could productively use the frequencies to expand and improve cellular service, with added airspace dramatically decreasing costs. Entrepreneurs lust for access to the rich VHF and UHF frequencies to unleash mobile Internet-based applications offering consumers a cornucopia of fresh choices for voice, data, video and applications yet to be dreamed.