Gold, however, predicted that carriers will become more open and might not necessarily partner with Google. "Verizon is starting to read the handwriting on the wall, but it remains to be seen how far and fast the carriers move toward openness," Gold said. "Google does have a lot of thrust and weight in this debate, but they are not the only guys pushing."

As one example, Gold said Cox Communications Inc. said in October it would , and "they could make it wide open."

For the next two years, Gold said, the big question is "what's openness going to mean?"