Why don’t PSTN providers also offer mobiles?

David Werdiger wonders why fixed-wire service providers don’t also offer mobiles.

“Firstly, the provisioning systems needed to be real-time rather than batch. You couldn’t just send over a file of phone numbers to a wholesale carrier to get them churned and placed on the white list. You had to have a system that connected (via a secure VPN) to a carrier system (which may or may not have existed). These things take many months to implement, from both sides of the coin”.  [Billing Bureau]