Somehow T-Mobile figured that out. And charge me a nice round numbers that include all their fees and taxes. They are also able to advertise their prices nationwide.
They're European (Deutsche Telekom), which might be part of why they prefer to work that way.
And as a consumer you can choose to use them if you like that model. The market works!
Only if you magically know for free which companies are using that model and which aren't.
T-Mobile advertises, last I checked you can watch the adverts for free.
The problem is that companies are deceptive in their adverts (and in the US this is apparently just normal and accepted). A company's ability to put out an advert that says "we're honest, our adverts don't lie to you" doesn't solve this problem for obvious reasons.
As a T-Mobile customer, and not paid at all to endorse their services, I can assert that their adverts do not lie.
Verifying that you are what you claim is definitely not free.
What does this even mean?
That there's still no magical way to know for free which companies are honest about their pricing and which aren't, in the absence of regulation. You can claim that you're just a happy customer and not a paid astroturfer, but it's not easy for me to practically confirm that (again, assuming there's no regulation to stop people falsely claiming those things).
For a cellular company perhaps, but that doesn't solve the cable internet / ADSL / fiber side.
Sure it does. T-mobile is less of a scumbag than Cox or Comcast. Switch en mass and Cox and Comcast will start to figure it out.