Well, everybody seems to hate their carrier to some degree. Apple gets to utilize the service without being blamed for the problems. And even if they did own

Well, everybody seems to hate their carrier to some degree. Apple gets to utilize the service without being blamed for the problems. And even if they did own a carrier they'd still have to deal with others as people roam off of their network, so they still wouldn't be in complete control. I could see Apple buying a carrier purely for investment reasons though, but they could do that with any business they choose.