Mmm, not really the same thing. In the wholesale case, the spectrum holder isn't incurring the costs of delivering service to individuals, such as customer support, individual billing, and advertising. That brings the wholesale price much lower than the marginal cost of providing retail service.
One interesting variation would be for the spectrum holders to sell only wholesale service. They would then be competing on technical attributes such as reliability, while the retailers would be competing on customer service and bundled applications. Some retailers could even offer devices that worked transparently with multiple wholesalers, allowing retailers to switch wholesalers, instead of being locked on like today's virtual carriers.
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This is a subset of "require price close to marginal cost" option.
Mmm, not really the same thing. In the wholesale case, the spectrum holder isn't incurring the costs of delivering service to individuals, such as customer support, individual billing, and advertising. That brings the wholesale price much lower than the marginal cost of providing retail service.
One interesting variation would be for the spectrum holders to sell only wholesale service. They would then be competing on technical attributes such as reliability, while the retailers would be competing on customer service and bundled applications. Some retailers could even offer devices that worked transparently with multiple wholesalers, allowing retailers to switch wholesalers, instead of being locked on like today's virtual carriers.