5G will need a wholly different approach to spectrum ownership and usage, if it is to succeed. That topic has been discussed relentlessly for the past few years, yet regulators in Europe and elsewhere are announcing ‘5G auctions’ run on the same old lines of exclusive, expensive, long-term licences, often involving relatively small amounts of spectrum. And one of the most anticipated US auctions ever – of 600 MHz broadcast spectrum which may well support 5G – has flopped. At the same time, the guardian of licensed spectrum technology, Qualcomm, has spawned a technology, MulteFire, which could allow organizations with no spectrum of their own at all to build cellular networks. Amazon plans to test its own devices in heartland…