  As far as many consumers and businessmen and women are concerned,
increasingly wireline and wireless services, including those provided by
terrestrial and satellite systems, are considered to be substitutes and
sometimes complements, regardless of the laws and regulations applicable to
them. At the same time, many writers and even government agencies (such as the
FCC) have suggested that users of the spectrum should be given more
property-like rights in the use of the spectrum and at a minimum should be
given much more flexibility in how they may use the spectrum. Two recent
developments have important implications with respect to "convergence,"
spectrum property rights and flexible use of the spectrum. The first
development involves several proposals to provide terrestrial wireless services
within spectrum in use or planned to be used to provide satellite services. The
second development is the passage of the 2000 ORBIT Act which specifically
forbids the use of license auctions to select among mutually exclusive
applicants to provide international or global satellite communications service.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the questions raised by these
two events, but not necessarily to provide definitive answers or solutions.
