Leaders

The price is right

Auctions are the best way of allocating spectrum for mobile-phone licences—as long as they are carefully designed

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SINCE April, when Britain's auction of third-generation (3G) mobile-phone licences raised an astonishing £22.5 billion ($35.5 billion), finance ministers in other European countries have been grinning at the prospect of their own sales. Lately, their smiles have been getting thinner. The Netherlands' auction, which ended this week, raised a mere euro2.7 billion ($2.5 billion), less than a third of what the Dutch government had originally hoped. And estimates of the proceeds of Germany's auction, which begins on July 31st, have tumbled as several prospective bidders have pulled out.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “The price is right”

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