Fixed-line broadband is just about as close to a 'dumb pipe connection' as you can get, and I still find it valuable to pay a premium for a better service.
Given all the myriad ways technical investment can improve the user experience of a mobile connection (additional cell sites, properly located microcells, sufficient backhaul bandwidth, sensibly sized buffers, etc), as well as less tangible benefits like better customer service, there will always be reasons to choose one carrier over another. Those still apply even if they all sold an 'identical' product consisting only of connectivity.
(Now, getting your average consumer to care about a technically better service instead of the flashiest subsidized handset for the bundle price? That might be a bit harder. Operators have been trying to differentiate with value-add services for years in the UK, and I don't know many people who care.)
Of course, with only four operators in the UK and a bunch of MVNOs it's a little trickier to find a 'niche, focused on quality-of-service' operator for mobile. In the fixed-line broadband market, I can choose between a couple of hundred ISPs, many of whom run their own infrastructure to a greater or lesser degree.
Fixed-line broadband is just about as close to a 'dumb pipe connection' as you can get, and I still find it valuable to pay a premium for a better service.
Given all the myriad ways technical investment can improve the user experience of a mobile connection (additional cell sites, properly located microcells, sufficient backhaul bandwidth, sensibly sized buffers, etc), as well as less tangible benefits like better customer service, there will always be reasons to choose one carrier over another. Those still apply even if they all sold an 'identical' product consisting only of connectivity.
(Now, getting your average consumer to care about a technically better service instead of the flashiest subsidized handset for the bundle price? That might be a bit harder. Operators have been trying to differentiate with value-add services for years in the UK, and I don't know many people who care.)
Of course, with only four operators in the UK and a bunch of MVNOs it's a little trickier to find a 'niche, focused on quality-of-service' operator for mobile. In the fixed-line broadband market, I can choose between a couple of hundred ISPs, many of whom run their own infrastructure to a greater or lesser degree.