The phone companies are set up the same way, where I live I can have AT&T, Dish, Direct or TW but not Verizon, Comcast or Charter. Cable and Phone companies have their safe zones so the only real competition is between Direct and Dish.
We have competition between U-Verse and Brighthouse.
It’s very effective. I’m paying 2010 prices for Brighthouse because I threaten to switch to U-Verse every time they send a price increase.