A utility is generally considered a monopoly - there is usually only one wire leading to your house.
I can choose Sprint, T-mobile, Verizon or ATT.
What monopoly are you speaking of?
I can choose Sprint, T-mobile, Verizon or ATT.
What monopoly are you speaking of?
Considering the barrier to entry to becoming a cellular operator is owning spectrum, that is one of the most impossibly high barriers to usurp. Nobody has to sell you any, the owners can set whatever price they want, and there are no mechanisms to mitigate this state-created impossible to overcome monopoly on light.
Landline access, by comparison, is macro-harder and micro-easier. It is more likely you can get easement rights to run fiber on a given street than to get the right to use wavelengths of EM, but trying to get easement in an entire city can be similarly impossible.
Power is setup the same way in some states, where multiple companies share the wires. This is only because the government demands the wires be shared fairly. Its an interesting arrangement, essentially a regulated monopoly called a utility.