Wired; wireless

I've been reading Wired pretty heavy for the past six months, and if one dominant trend in technology is emerging more clearly than any other, it's the rampant growth of the cell phone industry, technology, and associated structures. It's interesting to watch the symbiotic relationship between the technology and the carriers, (although its become almost parasitic at this point), as well as the way video games are being adapted for cell phones. All you kids of the 80's and 90's who liked Shareware and the early Super Mario games, that's where cell phone game technology is now. We can only wait and anticipate 3-d graphics and first person shooters (some more than others...I've never been a first person shooter kinda girl).
I was riding the bus home last night and got into a long conversation with the driver about the way the carriers put a plug on technology. The capabilities of phones is growing exponentially and the rate limiting factor between the existence and the use of the technology is the carrier plans. (Witness; Apple's compromise with Rogers thanks to their Canadian monopoly of GSM phones, or the fact that I can't afford to pay for full use of my BlackBerry technology). I do think, however, that eventually one of the carriers will realize that there is more money to be made by being the first carrier to offer the use of phones with all their capabilities - and i think specifically internet capabilities, though others too - than there is in choking the potential of the technology by charging for Megabytes of internet usage.
Exactly how far behind the world Canada is was driven home to me when I was in Italy recently. With my trusty Eee PC I would search for WiFi networks at each hostel i stayed at. Every one that didn't have an Internet room free for guest's use had at least 1 free WiFi network, and when I was on trains, at airports, or at cafes and searched, there would almost invariably be some WiFi hotspot nearby. The list was sometimes long enough to require scrolling. The world is already starting to offer free internet - the carriers need to reciprocate by lifting their chokehold on users and allow the technology to meet us halfway.
My personal opinions about internet access aside, one of the also very interesting things read between Wired's glossy, neon-barred pages is that there is a company called Better Place trying to apply the carrier/customer model currently in place to the idea of electric cars. Person buys a car, charges the battery at various points, with the car as the "phone" and the ability to charge as the monthly plan. Given the incredibly unsustainable state of the wireless industy model it would be unfortunate if the idea choked because of the same inherant problem - given access to technology a giant bottleneck controlled by carriers who limit what the general public can access/afford. However, if the carrier model is broken primarily because of technology outstripping the carrier's business plans, then it might be a good way to get the idea of the electric car off the ground, before the technology has gotten out of its infancy. But the feasability of the electric car technology itself is a whole other post...