[aneth4]

You can however sell your phone and buy one for a different network. iPhones in particularly have a very high resale value, and regardless the phone you bought maintains its market value and is resalable.

Telecom networks are extremely expensive to build. Having more than a few on the same technology would be wasteful, and consumers benefit from a diversity of technologies in the long run in addition to some level of network compatibility.

But seriously, don't like your network? Sell your phone on eBay and buy a different one that works on a different network. How hard is that?