"In such a scenario, phone calls would be considered just another form of data," the Associated Press notes in a recap of AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson's remarks Friday morning in a New York conference hosted by investment firm Bernstein Global Wealth Management.
Already, services like Skype are replacing some traditional voice calls, and services like iMessage are replacing some text messaging. The AP notes that "phone companies still make most of their money from calling plans and texting, which use very little data." The trend of carriers moving from unlimited plans to data caps isn't a good one for customers, but whether moving to a data-only model would help or hurt consumers is hard to say until actual pricing and plans are revealed.
