No big surprise.  After several months of media speculation, unlimited data is no more.  In the battle of network-thirsty-smartphones vs. capacity-constrained-data-networks, the score is Smartphones 1 Networks 0. 

Today’s AT&T announcement strikes me as more of a pre-emptive than reactive move, though.  If currently 35% of subscribers already use more than 200MB of data per month, that number is only going to skyrocket over the next 24 months as smartphones outsell feature phones in the US and become the most common access point to the internet. 

Clearly i’m now going to pay by volume of usage.  But an unanswered question is what happens to service quality as the network load continues to hockey stick?  Do I end up paying by volume and desired quality?

As the consumer dynamic evolves, two implications emerge for the enterprise as well:

• Real-time visibility into voice, SMS, and data usage becomes essential to prevent serious bill shock from overages
• Service quality monitoring becomes the best pro-active mechanism to protect the user experience, especially if network quality starts to erode

However, one of the major challenges companies will face is that you can’t control something you can’t see.  Most users have no idea how many KB a web page download is or how much traffic answering those 50 emails generates.  Without awareness, behaviors don’t change.

So in the age of variable pricing, visibility becomes paramount at both the individual and the corporate level.  Hold up a mirror and show me what I’m doing so I can make sure it ain’t crazy.