The cost to build out the wireless carriers’ networks to accommodate the level of data consumption we’re talking about here will be considerable.
I’m not saying that it won’t happen - I’m just saying that you’re not going to stream the amount of bandwidth you use to watch TV over your phone for $30/month, which is what I’m paying for “unlimited” data on my Verizon Droid X right now.
If I want to tether this phone to a laptop, for example (and Verizon wouldn’t care if the laptop were, in reality, my iMac which is the size of a TV set), that would be an additional $30/month. So we’re now talking about getting rid of the DirecTV subscription (which is $77/mo) and doing just as you’re saying - streaming data over our terrestrial ‘net connection (which is $60/mo).
When it is all said and done, I don’t think the consumer will be saving gobs of money, only taking the IP connection with him/her on the go, that’s all.
Youtube with British accent: