[dogma1138]

>Not all LTE bands are available in all countries.

That's something which is easy to change if there was a will, LTE bands mostly "replace" the older mish mash of bands and technologies that were deployed in various countries. This is why the both cover the GSM bands as well as TDMA/CDMA and even oddities like iDEN. So for the most part they are an easy transition, if you as a carrier already "owned" the rights for band X you usually would not have to secure a bid for that band again to use it for 4G/LTE.

With almost 70 bands you could easily push towards more carriers, however the competition and market forces seem to push towards consolidation since they buy in and the maintenance costs for the infrastructure are so high and overall margins could potentially be quite slim, looking at AT&T and Verizon their margins are only around 10-12% on average.

[nordify]

> That's something which is easy to change if there was a will

You don't really believe that, now do you?

Clearing the usage of new frequency bands is a huge regulatory undertaking involving multiple countries. It takes years and massive effort even when there is a very strong will and a clear need.