It is immensely frustrating that there is so little unlicensed spectrum available vs the massive amounts of spectrum available to militaries and very rich network operators.
Worse is that the unlicenced spectrum that is available is often so heavily encumbered with restrictions in many parts of the world. Wi-Fi HaLow for example, in ETSI regions, is limited to a paltry 14dBm EIRP in no wider than 2MHz channels and an unacceptably punishing duty cycle restriction in most cases that render it barely able to make a TCP connection (some mitigations exist that involve channel hopping on some products but nothing that works for things that require fixed channels, e.g. IBSS or 802.11s).
The licensed spectrum is not empty. It is scarce because it is fully allocated! Chances are that most of the allocated users are not using it in a given geographical area, so there's space to argue about allocation policies, however.
You can also consider trying to get a license. Costs and probability of success vary widely, but you may as well find out what they are before complaining.
Some European hacker events get temporary licenses to run their walkie talkies and even their own 4/5G cellphone networks. I assume they are cheaper and easier to get than permanent licenses.
> Worse is that the unlicenced spectrum that is available is often so heavily encumbered with restrictions in many parts of the world
It's one of the great things about the UK. As long as you're not causing interference to anyone that's actually paying for a licence, you can pretty much do what you like.
Worse is that the unlicenced spectrum that is available is often so heavily encumbered with restrictions in many parts of the world. Wi-Fi HaLow for example, in ETSI regions, is limited to a paltry 14dBm EIRP in no wider than 2MHz channels and an unacceptably punishing duty cycle restriction in most cases that render it barely able to make a TCP connection (some mitigations exist that involve channel hopping on some products but nothing that works for things that require fixed channels, e.g. IBSS or 802.11s).