Want better wireless service in America? Socialize it.

[Commentary] We've got a serious problem with the way our wireless providers operate, and if we don't do something soon, we risk slipping behind the rest of the world in how we do business and how we innovate.

There are two major challenges. The first is that we don't have enough bandwidth in this country. Anyone who owns an iPhone on AT&T will happily tell you about it. Not only do we not have enough wireless bandwidth, but all of the companies who are trying to compete with one another want to compete with their own networks that they control — like making special roads that only certain cars can drive on.

The other issue is the lack of nationwide standards for the technology that cellphones use to transmit signals. AT&T and T-Mobile use a certain wireless standard, GSM, and Verizon and Sprint use another, CDMA. In theory, AT&T and T-Mobile’s phones should work on each other’s networks, and so should Verizon’s and Sprint’s. But the companies have purposely made them incompatible. Additionally, all of these services leave big swaths of the country disconnected or poorly connected because they haven't sufficiently built out their networks.