Just a quick follow up to my previous post about Skype hitting the iPhone. As VOIP services start showing up on mobile platforms and adoption begins to spikes, how much longer can companies like AT&T charge $150 a month for 1350 minutes and a data plan (including Exchange on the iPhone)? My guess, not long at all.

My belief is that the rate plans we’re familiar with are going to go away, and eventually your rates will be determined by how much data you send/receive and the speed of your connection. Ultimately, all cell phones will need beyond hardware is the ability to get online and make cheap (and sometimes free) phone calls over the Internet. So maybe something like:

Obviously keeping in mind that the table above is meant to represent current speeds at the time of the new rate rollout. I think it will be a couple years before we see this type of movement from the cell service providers, but once it hits I think it will spread like wildfire.

Who knows, maybe the plans with eventually come with additional services like supported streaming video teleconferencing that don’t count against bandwidth consumption…although I wouldn’t hold your breath on that one.

No related posts.