You're mixing concerns when you bring in roaming. It's really a different beast, not very liberalised, so old, entrenched more-or-less monopolies control this a

You're mixing concerns when you bring in roaming. It's really a different beast, not very liberalised, so old, entrenched more-or-less monopolies control this and disrupting is difficult. As for fixed lines, there's a reasonable amount of competition. Multiple providers give you affordable, uncapped connections for well under $200 (I pay £22.50/month). Unfortunately, they've got traffic shaping in effect in "prime time" which is a bit annoying, but I can get an unshaped connection for £32/month from another provider, so I'll switch when my current contract expires. As for mobile, my current provider has uncapped mobile usage (I don't know how they'll detect if I connect a laptop, but that's the terms) for £10/month. I haven't tried doing VoIP over it, and don't really care, although Skype happily logs in.