Sammies finalist helped design lucrative spectrum auction process for FCC

Published: Sept. 22, 2021, 11:01 a.m.

b'The electromagnetic spectrum that our phones, radios and TVs rely on is a scare commodity and figuring out how to allocate it in the most sensible way has been a challenge for the past century. The way the Federal Communications Commission does it now, particularly when it comes to cell phones, is based on a complex auction process. The idea is to use market forces to make the most efficient use of the spectrum. Those auctions have generated more than $200 billion in revenue to the federal government so far. Our next guest is one of the designers of the modern-day process. Evan Kwerel is a senior economic advisor at the FCC, where he\\u2019s spent more than three decades working on the problem. And he\\u2019s a finalist for this year\\u2019s Service to America Medals. He talked about his work with Federal News Network\\u2019s Jared Serbu on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'