Here in Finland we have some of the cheapest phone plans in the entire world. Apologies for repeating myself from other threads but this is how it is done (I really really hope this happens in the US and Canada):

-Make phone locking illegal. All phones must work with any type of SIM card. This can be justified in law as locking is anti-competitive and serves no useful purpose to the consumer.

-All networks must accept user-authorised connections from any compatible device providing the device does no harm to the network infrastructure. If your device works with the network and you have a valid SIM card, there shouldn't be any roadblocks to stop you connecting.

In other words, make mobile phone service the same as cable-based broadband service. You pay a fee, you get your connection, no questions asked, no complex billing system. Dumb pipes, in other words.

Interestingly that last point about accepting connections from any device was what Google insisted upon as a precondition to that US frequency auction a while ago. If that was adopted on all frequencies in North America that would go a long way to solving the problems of competition, especially as phone hardware prices drop to insignificant levels (a truly basic mobile phone only costs about US$30 unlocked now).

Once you have competition the whole quality of service goes up, the prices go down, everyone uses the mobile internet a lot more and it then allows the entire mobile economy to grow much faster.