The mobile Web is turning big industries into even bigger rivals

[Commentary] The way we've thought about cellphone service has always been a little, well, different. Unlike cable TV and telephone service, which you'll often find bundled together, most Americans have never known anything but a world in which wireless service was sold separately. Insulated from other industries by the unique physics of wireless engineering, the cellular industry has long operated in its own little fiefdom. Not anymore. Now we're standing on the cusp of a revolution in technology use, one that has the nation's biggest media and telecommunication firms looking to claim a slice of the wireless pie.

Mobile data is powering more of our voice and video consumption than ever. And that's forcing many companies to focus on the wireless sector in a way they didn't before. In short, the mobile Internet is where some of the industry's biggest battles of the near future will play out. Things are only going to get more competitive as entirely new services start relying on the mobile Web and using up wireless spectrum, the radio waves that carry voice and data over the air to their destination. The upcoming auction is just one example of what has become a high-stakes chess game in technology. Yes, the story of the Internet in 2015 is about the convergence of all media onto the Web, and the unprecedented clashes that causes. But more specifically, it's a story about the fate of our wireless future.