As market-based reform sweeps telecommunications industries around the world, it is a good time to reevaluate the spectrum management policies which govern wireless industries ranging from broadcast television to satellite communications. Most countries have been using a central planning approach to spectrum management, but there are many alternatives with varying degrees of flexibility and market-based incentives. This paper provides a survey of spectrum management approaches, addressing methods of determining how spectrum can be used, which commercial entities can use it, and how governments can manage their own spectrum. It identifies some of the crucial choices to be made, and summarizes advantages and disadvantages of each.