Rhizomatica went through the process and got a license; there was 5MHz of spectrum that had never been licensed, and they took advantage of a period of major policy reform in Mexico to make the case for allocating it for community use. It took several years (starting with a provisional license, eventually getting a permanent one) and they have an awesome lawyer on their team who helped drive it.
There are some countries in the EU that actually are fairly permissive for low-power use of GSM bands (Netherlands I think?).