Spectrum auctions (the costs of which are passed on to the winning telco's customers) are not only a tax, they're a tax that gets marked-up by a private company before being collected.

Very skillful framing of spectrum auctions as a tax. Would love to see this view pushed more widely, as society would reap some serious benefits... primarily large swathes of unlicensed spectrum.

In a light-touch regulatory framework, this could lead to innovation leaps. If anyone is familiar with the economics of Coase (generally credited with devising the spectrum auction scheme), would love to read some good counter-points.

Thanks for the kind words. To be honest, this framing doesn't seem skillful at all. It seems screamingly obvious (at least to me). What I can't figure out is why this view should need so much pushing in the first place.