You know this is a joke, right?
they all have to lease band from the 2 big ones. The government does not allow them to build a network even if they had the money.
The only reason they exist is to scrap the bottom end of the market. the moment the market shifts to them, the 2 big ones will raise their network use prices to the point it is cheaper to use them than the small ones.
not to mention the good old lowering of their price until they've killed competition, again.
The agency is not responsible for policing quality of service--that is a function left to the market. Nor does the agency simply get to decide that it will police quality of service--it must be granted that authority by Congress.
There are 2 "little ones" they can buy from (and often do without telling folks. Lots of Straight Talk / Net10 / TracFone devices buy from Sprint or T-Mobile without explicitly telling you)
While these smaller carriers aren't always a great replacement (in a lot of areas, for a lot of reasons) they provide enough competition to work well most of the time.
For instance, both AT&T and Verizon now offer $60/month prepaid plans for smartphones with LTE data.
That didn't exist a year ago. If AT&T had been able to kill T-Mobile, it probably never would have happened.
And T-Mobile offers a $30 prepaid plan with LTE data, though they don't try very hard to advertise it.
spoken from experience... i'm still enduring it out of longer term view (hope?) but it is though.
Also, one other thing - their customer service told me that I wouldn't be able to use an unlocked Nexus 4 on their network - so make sure your phone is usable with them before buying one.
I myself am planning to get myself either a N5 or a MotoG and switch to T-Mobile.