Verizon's John Czwartacki this week asked via Twitter what the public's biggest question was surrounding Verizon's upcoming Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband launch this year. Given we know the service will launch in 25-30 markets this year, offering speeds of 5-12 Mbps (probably more around 3-8 Mbps) -- our biggest question remains: what's the price tag, and what kind of caps are we looking at? Judging from the lack of response to that question, Verizon hasn't decided yet. That's what Light Reading concludes as well:Of course the pricing models the carriers want to implement involve high ETFs, mandatory data plans, low caps, high overages, and a structure that pretends to offer value, but quietly pushes consumers toward the higher price points whether they use a lot or a little data. While these models are proposed under the auspices of fairness, they're really about charging everybody more money for data -- to counter a future where SMS and voice minutes are supplanted by open networks, mobile VoIP, and smartphone IM clients.

In contrast, consumers dealing with an economic recession and layoffs (maybe even from AT&T and Verizon) want data plans that offer them real value (not the illusion of value), and they don't want use of next-generation networks constrained by last-generation caps and pricing. AT&T and Verizon will have to meet consumers somewhere halfway.