I hope Google steps in and buys T-Mobile. Sprint is the worst US carrier, T-Mobile is the best... both in terms of technology and customer service.
It's possible that Google would bring excellence to consumer infrastructure as well. However, they haven't run an ISP, cable company, wireless company, home broadband, or other regulated consumer infrastructure project. That doesn't mean they wouldn't be up to the challenge, it's more a question of why you believe they'd do better? They talk a nice game of unlimited, high-speed broadband, but that's easy when you're not the one paying to provide it.
Google also had the option to purchase the open-access 700MHz spectrum and once the reserve price was met, decided that they didn't want to be in the consumer-facing communications infrastructure game. If they didn't want to become a wireless company a couple years ago, what would have changed to make them want to become one now?
Google has a strong staff and it would, at the very least, be interesting to see how they would fare as a company. Would they decide to forgo the profits one receives for pushing things like Blockbuster Mobile onto their smartphones? Would they push faster technology faster? Would they decide that limits were wrong to put on users? Would they decide to forgo subsidised phones and offer much lower priced plans?
I think Google just entered the auction to ensure open-access. It was quite a clever move.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iMbsPSv2vatAVvbz_8n0xU3M...
Google is one of the few companies that could really benefit from doing analytics on all the call and internet traffic data, and I don't predict a future world in which people happily pay $30/month for each connected device they own.
Google has the chance to define how the game is played and leap ahead of the competition (mostly Apple) by creating a product and service mix that Apple's carrier parters will refuse to match.
AT&T: http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/#?type=voice
T-Mobile: http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/pcc.aspx
If I lived in an urban area (where T-Mobile is likely to have already deployed both standard 3G and HSDPA+ coverage, and AT&T's network has a higher than average proportion of heavy iPhone users), my experiences with either carrier are likely to be different than if I lived and stayed in the suburbs or rural areas (where T-Mobile is more likely to either have EDGE coverage or nothing at all).
Additionally, measuring "bars" is useless to the measurement of coverage (1) because the bars on one phone could mean something totally different than the bars on another phone (see iPhone reception miscalculation) and (2) because how many bars you have, or signal strength or reception, is determined in part by how close you are to the signal source. So what if you have perfect reception if you live right next to a cell tower?
It pretty much depends on where you are in the US. The only carrier whose service is close to universally lauded everywhere is Verizon.
Regardless, as a happy T-Mobile customer, me too.