If the mobile operators could charge 50% of mobile users $15 a month extra for a flat rate data plan it would dwarf any revenues they could get from trying to run services themselves (ringtones, video etc is peanuts for most operators). Plus, they can get incremental revenues through providing enablers like billing, CRM data, location feeds to third party service providers.

I can see his point, there's no incentive for mobile operators to improve when they offer all you can eat service for a singular price.

That said, I think it's wrong. Prior to the broadband revolution, people on dial-up were extremely stingy with their attention span and time. Back in the day I had to save up and count down the number of minutes SimCityDemo.zip would download off AOL so that I can time it correctly.

But the surge in popularity for this fueled the subsequent revolution. More people saw value in being online and to compete, the service providers gave away more hours. Then more free days. Then more free months. Then faster speed. And now ubiquity.

And the consumer interest has only surged. Now people are free to experiment, free to tinker, because of the abundance and availability of access. I may not use any of the stuff shown at TechCrunch40 but I'll at least give it a shot. What do I have to lose? I pay $14.99 for unlimited DSL and $19.99 for unlimited EVDO.

Similarly, what's going to cause the mobile revolution to explode in America is more than skin deep. It's not just the pricing, it all has to do with technology and government regulations. Japan's mobile revolution happened years ago, not because their operators competed on tiered services and billing practices, but because they competed on technology and was relatively free of government regulations.