Although carriers right now may currently enjoy being able to charge users two different plans for separate devices each month, De La Vergne says that competitive pressures and consumer demands will soon make such plans practically impossible. Instead users will pay for a lump of data every month that they can access through any device they have hooked up to the network.
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De La Vergne says that the expansion of LTE networks and the added bandwidth they provide will make consumers want to be able to access their data everywhere, not just when they're in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot. And since carriers will want their users to remain loyal, they'll try to entice them to keep all their devices locked into the same service agreement by offering them simplified plans that will give them access to their data from whatever device they choose.
"Operators have been hesitant on data plans for multiple devices because of the issues AT&T had with the ," he says. "But with all the additional bandwidth available now, multi-device plans create opportunities for operators to more fully load these under-utilized LTE networks."