Getting tough on cellular providers

Charley on the MTA writes it's past time the legislature did something about rapacious cellular companies ripping off consumers by locking them into overpriced, shoddy service:

... How cool would it be to actually have real, fluid competition in cell phone service? Unlock the contracts, and the companies will have more incentive to improve service. Someone else has a better/cheaper phone plan? Go with them! ...

Not so fast there, Peter Morin says. He argues service is just fine along major highways and such and that the real problem isn't cellular companies but obstreperous local boards in hoity-toity towns like Weston that refuse to let the companies put in enough cell towers because they're NIMBYs run amok:

... [T]he town of Wayland has been chastised by a federal court for its "fixed opposition" to wireless, been sued successfully a second time, and doesn't appear to have been chastened in the least. If you live in Sudbury and commute from Boston, either take the Pike to Natick or take Route 20 and listen to Howie Carr, because a phone call you will not make. ...