[Veliladon]

I don't think we want to see national carriers broken up. If you don't think a mid-size carrier won't make fucking bank on roaming fees you haven't seen what a lot of them did in the '80s.

What really needs to be done is the monopolistic elements of cell phone service like spectrum, tower, and backhaul provided at cost by a neutral (state owned) entity and the retail services built on top of reselling that.

The barrier to entry on a ground up cell network is almost impossible to surmount without billions in capital but an MVNO that can work on the same cost basis and network as the national chains?

[THENATHE]

I absolutely do. In my area, the Verizon and ATT towers are so unbelievably crowded that we literally cannot use data anywhere in a 20+ mile radius. Maybe if there were 5 companies here instead of 3 we would have more -> less congested towers

[toast0]

You might have more towers, or you might have all 5 companies on the same set of towers. Regardless, I think the spectrum is fully sold, so a challenger network isn't going to have spectrum to use, and if they get spectrum reallocated, existing towers that lose spectrum will be less effective.

Edit to add: If your towers are as congested as they seem, the carriers should be aware, and the problem is likely a lack of available tower sites; either because of geographical considerations, site owners don't want towers, or local regulators don't want towers. Additional networks won't really help with that either.

[iAMkenough]

You're asking to rely on a smaller company with fewer spectrum licenses, fewer towers, and therefore spottier coverage.

[czl]

The solution to congested towers is to add more towers and reduce the power levels making the coverage of each smaller. In a crowded room you can increase the number of simultaneous conversations by having people stand closer to each other and reduce voice volume levels at the limit people are whispering into each other's ears. Similar idea works with wireless devices. devices.

[_ea1k]

I think it is more likely that they'd all outsource tower construction to a small handful of companies and leave congestion roughly equivalent to the current state.

TBH, this happens a lot in large stable industries.

[jonwachob91]

>>> you haven't seen what a lot of them did in the '80s.

The commercial mobile phone network was invented in the 80's. Comparing market behaviors during the industry's infancy to the behaviors of established industries is wrong. The market took some time to figure out best practices, for consumers and industry health.

20's years ago roaming fees and texting fees where expensive, but then corporations figured out unlimited packages were more profitable. We pay a set price now for texting for the month, but it still costs the carriers money for each text we send. The carriers just hope that the power texters balance with the infrequent texters allowing them to turn a profit. The same with calling.

I don't know if regional networks could compete with national networks. I just want to reinforce that market practices at the industry's infancy aren't the same as they are now.

[BizarroLand]

The cost per text is in the microfractions of a penny now, if that.