1. Many telecom companies in other countries that use auctions have pretty decent returns. See, e.g., ATT and VZ among others. > other solutions exists - e.g.

1. Many telecom companies in other countries that use auctions have pretty decent returns. See, e.g., ATT and VZ among others. > other solutions exists - e.g. revenue sharing - which work very well The terms of the revenue sharing need to be worked out somehow. That "somehow" is typically via some sort of competition for scarce resources (spectrum), e.g., an auction. Sure, the gov't could just set a price, but the inefficiency and lack of price discovery inherent to that approach is precisely the issue the auction seeks to address.