2013: The year mobile data stops being profitable

The cost of delivering a gigabyte of data will surpass the cost carriers receive for said gigabyte some time in early 2013, according telecommunications gear vendor Tellabs.

In 2010 a carrier received nearly $25 from delivering a gigabyte; by 2015 that will drop to about $5. This might be cause for joy for consumers, if the same research didn’t show the cost of delivering a gigabyte falling from around $20 to about $7 or $8 in that same time frame. That falloff will put carriers in the red, and explains their insistence that the demand for mobile data will bankrupt them without new pricing models. Of course, Tellabs has a stake in carriers making bank, since it sells them gear.