While many developed countries have adopted general authorization regimes or open entry policies, individual licences continue to have relevance in many emerging and transitional economies. Individual licences are also typically used to authorize the use of spectrum where the demand for access to radio frequency bands exceeds availability. Individual authorizations have been standard for 3G spectrum licences, for example.
This section reviews common licensing practices related to individual licences. The next section addresses the competitive licensing processes that are used to issue individual licences.