The fundamental problem with most commercial infrastructure providers (which is pretty much all wired and wireless ISP) is that competition can never be perfect because of the laws of physics.<p>There is only so much room to put cables in the ground, or wireless spectrum to use. Thus, the governemnt auctions these roles off (often at far far below their actual worth), and companies use their physical monopoly to extract maximal profit with as minimal infrastructure as possible.<p>The obvious solution is pro-consumer regulation. Eliminate long term contracts and make unlocking of phones mandatory after contract expiration. Force all carriers to have common carrier status, so the physical infrastructure is a dumb pipe. This list could go on and on...<p>The problem with this is that anyone in the industry will lobby against this and they already have the political will against any change, as they're making a ton of profit via their monopoly status.