The end of unlimited wireless signals the rise of WiFi

AT&T and Verizon, two of the US's largest cell-phone carriers, and (I'm going to assume) the largest distributors of wireless internet in the country have now both announced that they will no longer make "unlimited use" wireless plans available to their customers.  My guess is that the big two were getting too much demand for data from their networks, and had to find a way to manage it.  I'm going to go ahead and announce my predictions for the future of wireless/portable internet:

1.  Cell phone bills skyrocket for some, stay the same for others.  With the rise of 3G tablets and super-capable smart phones, customers subscribing to the new "Pay-as-you-go" internet plans will undoubtedly pay more than the $35 per month that they paid for the now-defunct unlimited plans.  AT&T's new data rate is set-up so that you pay $20 per month for 20 MB of data (about 9 minutes of YouTube video), but in an age that is moving rapidly in the direction of mobile computing, this will prove to be far too expensive for even a casual phone internet user, but for $60 per month you can get a whole 5GB of data.  Now 5GB is probably enough for most people in a month, but who wants to fork over $60 for it?  Not me, and probably not you, which is why I predict...

2.  The rise of WiFi.  Its likely that this won't all be free either, but the competition from an increased number of WiFi hotspots could seriously damage the cell companies' ability to charge such exorbitant prices for mobile internet.  We'll also have to see who starts to dominate the WiFi network though, because a lot of them are managed by AT&T or Verizon, so I could see them raising the price on WiFi hotspots to keep up with the increase in mobile charges.

As kind of a side note, I think we're reaching a sort of bottleneck with internet connection and speeds.  Computing is trying to move mobile, and put its storage off in a remote location for access from any computer in the world, but the connection speeds don't yet make it practical.  Maybe Google's fiber optic idea will catch on...I can dream at least.