The last few years of telecoms evolution has seen the rise of the App Store, the promise of faster networks, a massive increase in mobile broadband use,  the launch of sophisticated services like mobile TV and location-based services (LBS), and a vast proliferation of ’smart’ devices to better consume them. After a lot of predictions and previews, it now seems like all of these recent developments might come together to really start impacting the future of the communications industry.

The Mobile World Congress conference has become the industry’s go-to platform to announce and discuss the biggest trends in the industry. This year’s event, and some of the lead-up announcements to it, provided many indicators that the communications industry is indeed at the doorstep of some very significant changes that will affect not just the communications industry but also broader ideas of general consumer behavior.

Thinking about all these new technologies gets my imagination going. Here are some of the bigger things I find promising for how the mobile industry is evolving:

1.) Verizon & Skype: Verizon will soon release an application with Skype to allow mobile VoIP calling. With it, mobile users can make free calls to other Skype users using their data plans and not using up voice plan minutes. They can also use standard Skype Out calling rates to make international calls, again simply by using the data plan.  The quality over Skype is pretty decent, so I’m forced to wonder: just what would keep people subscribing to traditional voice services? More people, especially in younger generations, are going mobile phone-only.  My friend’s company, although it is relatively small, recently cancelled all of their land line services and bought all of their employees iPhones instead. There are also still plenty of rules about how voice plan minutes get used when calling ‘inside’ a network (ie, an AT&T subscriber can’t call their friend with Verizon service without using their minutes). If everyone starts using Skype, though, this whole model becomes increasingly irrelevant. This is hugely significant for service providers. Telecoms’ bread and butter for as long as they’ve been around has been voice service. Now they are starting to say it’s not nearly as necessary as it once was. This is not just a novel technology move, this will  really shift the telecoms business model towards a new dynamic.

2.) 4G mobile and advanced fixed-line networks: Significantly faster mobile broadband speeds will be a true reality before the year is out. 4G/LTE deployments by TeliaSonera, Verizon Wireless, MetroPCS, NTT DoCoMo and AT&T will begin delivering speeds up to 6x faster than current 3G networks. These are the type of speeds that will make things like live mobile TV, on demand video streaming and p2p content sharing actually something you might want to do with your phone. No more jittery, low-quality YouTube home videos. These are speeds capable of streaming HD movies. Additionally, Google’s announcement it will build trial fiber optic networks to demonstrate the possibilities of super high speed broadband, and the FCC’s own intentions to push for higher speed connections, will bring further innovations to market in the coming years.

3.) Symbian 3 and content consumption: This one really got my imagination going. The latest version of the World’s most popular mobile operating system platform (no, the iPhone hasn’t officially taken over the World just yet…) will, among other interesting features, provide HDMI support. In short: this is awesome. Throw out your Blu-Ray player and ditch the jumble of ethernet and AV cables you use to hook your laptop up to your TV.   With the reality of 4G mobile network speeds fast enough to stream HD videos over the air, peoples’ behavior for how they consume content and the devices they use to do so will change. Additionally, the WAC initiative from 24 of the world’s largest service providers aims to create a standard way for content companies like Paramount or distributors like Netflix and Hulu let consumers buy applications on any phone or network to stream HD movies over mobile devices. All of a sudden, who needs a Blu-Ray player? Or a DVD player? Or a subscription HBO TV service? Or even a DVR when you can just pull your phone out of your pocket, search for your favorite movie or TV show and plug the phone in to your TV?

There’s plenty of work to be done to make all this actually happen, but it’s not hard to imagine these types of situations becoming reality in the next few years.  With all of this in the works, just imagine where the industry will be by 2020. How do you see your life changing as a result of these technological breakthroughs?