Re:Fantastic! (Score 2, Insightful)

but while it's true that the US is (37 times) bigger than the UK, so is the population, and therefore the opportunity for investment

I think the logistics just don't scale so easily. I think many people outside of the US think of it as just another country, but it is really almost like 50 different countries with different cultures, demographics, geographies, laws etc. Even more when you consider the differences between say Northern/Central/Southern California.

For instance I live in Central California which is full of mountains and gulches and such. Even in Silicon Valley, which you would think would be an obvious focus area, there are stretches of open grazing ranges and rolling hills in between the clusters of activity. So just driving 20 minutes from San Jose to Palo Alto I can't guarantee I'll get a connection. I generally don't have coverage problems in any 'downtown' areas, just in areas where one could see there might be difficulties.

As far as coverage in the rural parts of the country, I can't imagine how companies could justify cell towers in places where the population density is low. Just as a reference, compare the overall population density of the UK versus US:

UK: 244.7 people per sq. km
US: 29.7 people per sq. km

and then you compare the individual states:

New Jersey: 438.00 people per sq. km
California: 83.85 people per sq. km
Wyoming: 1.96 people per sq. km.

So it makes sense that the providers will focus on local solutions and there will be lots of dead spots in between. Quite the challenge, I'd say.