As I listened to the Facebook-Skype video chat announcement earlier this week -- and the discussion about how it would move into mobile -- I was struck by the fact that consumers and services are moving in the opposite direction of carriers. Consumers don't want to have to ration their data usage and publishers are increasingly delivering services (e.g., Neflix) that are bandwidth heavy and data intensive.

As you saw earlier Verizon is the latest US carrier to end "unlimited" data pricing. Following AT&T and T-Mobile's leads, the company is moving to usage-based pricing. This is often sold as a consumer benefit. But carriers see increasing data usage and want more revenue. And at a time when voice minutes are declining carriers need to gain more profit from their data networks.

As an aside the AT&T-Mobile deal is now likely to approved with conditions. This will provide better coverage and service to AT&T subscribers but result in higher prices for consumers down the line. Higher prices will also come with usage-based pricing as consumers exceed data limits. Indeed, consumers have no idea what 2GB or 5GB or 10GB all mean, as a practical matter. To that end Verizon is introducing a number of tools and apps that will help consumers monitor and manage data usage. While this will be helpful tiered-based pricing is fundamentally not what consumers want.

Among the four major US post-paid carriers Sprint alone has true unlimited plans now. This creates a rare opening and opportunity for Sprint to seize upon, especially if Sprint gets the iPhone (as suggested by many) in the fall. Many of the pre-paid carrier plans will also continue to offer unlimited data but users will only gain access to "tier two" Android handsets, many of which are getting better. Rumor also suggests a pre-paid version of the iPhone may be on the way. 

Wholesale 4G-LTE provider LightSquared may also be a kind of white knight in the battle against unfriendly carrier pricing. Sprint has done a long-term deal with LightSquared and other secondary carriers or perhaps even new MVNOs could potentially emerge, using a LightSquared network, to challenge AT&T and Verizon's control of the market. That would be welcome. 

There are real differences in the quality of the carrier networks as well as customer service differences. But at the end of the day they're commodity providers of bandwidth. What most consumers really want is a good handset selection, reasonable network coverage and, perhaps most importantly, value-pricing.