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'extracted' as in 'run an auction to let the market sort it out'.

It's popular to blame governments for everything, but if market actors behave irrationally, there's nobody to blame but them.

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Indeed, people are always saying "let the market decide". We ran a market. It decided.

to the detriment of the citizens of Germany, as they pay more for less than just about anyone in the EU for mobile data.

considering the spectrum is a public resource, it's up to the government to make sure such a resource is adequately exploited for the good of the people. I think one could make a strong argument that extracting 1200EUR a head from telecom providers isn't the best way to exploit such a public resource.

The government had no idea what it's worth (and who did in 2002?), so they ran an auction. Should they have decided 'oh, that's too much, let's just charge half of that?'

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