Summary
Voice pricing will fundamentally change in the next two years driven by developments in the area of wireless data and VoIP such as Google's "Google Voice", Skype for Mobile, and VoLGA with LTE. This will have a profound impact on prepaid wireless, relegating it to a credit-impaired only service.
Analysis
Wireless carriers need to come to grips with the fact that, in general, voice is becoming increasingly marginalized, and that prepaid will become marginalized with it.
The factors driving this are forces driving low-cost/no-cost VoIP over wireless. While this will not be a major factor within the next 12 months, within 18-30 months the pressure will be on carriers to position "carrier voice" as a premium convenience "dialable" service as compared to free VoIP services. As this evolution begins to take hold, prepaid services will begin to look less attractive versus a low-cost post-paid plan with data.
