You can pick any ISP you want… as long as it’s Comcast. In the United States, many of us have no choice whatsoever in the way of broadband ISPs. Plenty of localities are more than happy to offer monopolies to mega-corps, and that means competition is effectively nonexistent in those areas. Price hikes, stagnant speeds, and other bad behaviors are free to run rampant, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. Upwards of 30% of Americans have absolutely no choice in the matter, and SoftBank is upset about that. So, what’s its proposed solution to the lack of competition? Even more consolidation.

In a talk delivered to the USCC lobbying group, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son discussed the dire state of broadband internet access in America. Of course, SoftBank is a majority shareholder of Sprint, so the presentation undoubtedly has a specific spin to it. Son shines a light on the fact that 37% of Americans have only two wired broadband providers, 28% have just one, and 2% have no wired broadband ISPs at all. It’s an ugly reality, but Son assures us that America can rise again, and put our checkered broadband past behind us.

Son believes that by rolling out faster and widespread LTE, America can return to the top of the broadband charts. That’s certainly a lovely idea, and it’s worth discussing, but Son clearly has an angle. An excellent article over at Quartz brings up a number of troubling quotes regarding a potential Sprint and T-Mobile merger that leads me to believe that Son’s ambitions would leave us right where we started. (Read: T-Mobile’s LTE will cover 250 million people in 2014, everywhere in the US by 2015.)

Son wants a “three-heavyweight fight” in the wireless space, and that means absorbing T-Mobile in the process. If Sprint gets what it wants, Son thinks that Sprint can even compete in the home broadband market against wired providers. It’s a nice dream, but eliminating competition from the equation isn’t the way to get there. Just like the controversial merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, a Sprint and T-Mobile merger would largely consolidate local monopolies under one banner, and eliminate choice in the handful of markets covered by both services.

Even if Sprint can eventually develop a wireless service to compete against copper and fiber, there’s nothing stopping the same shady business deals from happening all over again. Sprint would end up with its own “turf,” and the cycle of anti-competitive and anti-consumer behavior continues on. Unless the federal government feels the need to step in, or Google Fiber really picks it up a notch, don’t expect any major improvements in terms of ISP competition.

Image credit: jetheriot & JeepersMedia