This is almost certainly true, but they might make more money if (for example) one carrier's half-assed spam mitigation technology is shown to work better than

This is almost certainly true, but they might make more money if (for example) one carrier's half-assed spam mitigation technology is shown to work better than a competing carrier's quarter-assed spam mitigation technology. From the perspective of some analysts, collaborating with competitors over a technology that might otherwise be used as a competitive advantage is leaving money on the table, even if the end result is a worse situation for everyone. And from an analyst's perspective, shareholders are the company's customers, not the people who use their services. Which has a certain logic to it, but we'll see if these companies care more about their customers or their shareholders.