Better late than never, right? GigaOM reports that AT&T, in conjunction with some 10-15 incumbent telecom carriers—British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom and NTT among them—is plotting to launch a Skype competitor, according to a research report issued by ThinkEquity analyst Anton Wahlman.

Wahlman said in the report that the telcos plan to offer a VoIP client that will work on the carrier's existing 3G data networks (the ones responsible for most of today's mobile media streaming), and will use a backend platform that will allow folks to make free voice calls to anyone who's logged into it.

"Much the same way as Skype-to-Skype calls are free, incumbents could use their platform to keep calls from each other's network free. The plan could help them avoid the termination charges and still make money when the calls go off the network to, say, a rival's phone service or wireless network. 'We believe that they will have to use a common client and common software platform in order to make this work,'" Wahlman said.

Still, the carriers are really late with this given that Skype has been around for almost five years.

The European Commission has agreed to allow air travelers to use their cell phones on flights over Europe, but the ability won't be widely available for a while yet. According to an American Foreign Press report, the new service will use an onboard network, so the calls will be a bit more expensive than with a typical wireless operator.

As with other electronics, cell phones can't be used until the plane reaches a cruising altitude of at least 3,000 feet.

Airlines in the 27 EU member states have six months to start allowing cell phone calls. To keep chattering flyers from annoying other passengers, the airlines will have some freedom about how and when to use the service.

Air France has started testing the system.

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Here's something we never could have guessed: The use of cell phones is increasing and traditional landline telephone coverage is decreasing.

The results of four surveys Harris Interactive conducted from October through January found that one in seven US adults have ditched their landlines and use only cell phones. The percentage of households with landlines has fallen to 79%, down from 81% a year ago while the percentage of folks who use a cell phone for at least some of their calls has grown from 77% a year ago to 89% in January.

Also, contrary to popular belief that only the young have eschewed the older technology, Harris found that about half of the folks that only use cell phones are 30 or over.

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Following the lead of just about every other big US mobile operator, Alltel Wireless has come out with a $99-a-month unlimited voice plan, according to a report on FierceWireless.

The new plan, Freedom Unlimited, is separate from Alltel's MyCircle plans, which provide unlimited calling to a specific list of phone numbers for a flat monthly fee, starting at $49 a month for unlimited calls to five numbers and $59 for unlimited calls to 10 numbers. Why anyone would still sign up for MyCircle when they can now get a plan that lets them call as many numbers as they want for an extra $40 is a mystery to us, but Alltel chief marketing officer Frank O'Mara recently told FierceWireless that his company considers $50 a month the "sweet spot" for a wireless plan.

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MediaPost reports that nearly two thirds of Americans have now used mobile devices for things other than talking, according to a new study on mobile data usage by the Pew Internet Project.

The study released today found that the cell phone would be the hardest communications technology for people to give up. More than half (51%) said it would be very hard to give up their cell phone, compared to only 38% in 2002, the report said.

Other facts quoted from the article:

- 58% of U.S. adults have used cell phones or PDAs for text-messaging, taking a picture, looking for directions or surfing the Web.

- 62% have either used a mobile data service or logged onto the Internet via a laptop away from home or work or via a handheld device.

- Text messaging and photos were the most popular activities - 58% - with playing a game (27%), sending e-mail (19%) and accessing the Web for news, weather and other information (19%) rounding out the top five.

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Engadget has a report on the generically-named Wireless Consumer Protection and Community Broadband Empowerment Act.

According to the report, the bill, which is currently on the House and Senate floor and is sponsored by Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey, would require carriers to "sell contract-free phones, provide rate plan information in a clear, plain, and conspicuous manner, disclose any phone subsidies hidden in the plan's price, and offer price-comparable plans with no subsidy or early termination fee."

In English, the report explains that the bill means we'd finally know exactly how much a plan would really cost every month including taxes and fees. It would also be easier to see how much devices like the iPhone are actually marked up, and "most importantly, it'd be way easier to switch carriers to get better deals." This all sounds just great, which is why we're not expecting the bill to be passed as such.

Verizon Communications chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg told investors at a Merrill Lynch Communications Forum that the new Verizon Wireless flat-rate pricing plans have been very well received.

According to a Fierce Wireless report, Seidenberg even told his audience to visit AT&T and T-Mobile stores to compare the $99 dollar unlimited plans both rivals revealed on the heels of the Verizon Wireless announcement last week. "Go to their stores and ask what they are," Fierce Wireless quotes him as saying. "The announcement was the same but they are different."

Presumably we're supposed to infer that Verizon's is the superior plan.

Surprisingly, Seidenberg told the folks at the Forum that there wouldn't be much change to the company's bottom line because of the new flat-rate plans. "There's been a lot of hullabaloo about flat rate, but only a few customers have plans over $100 per month," he said.

This is getting good. T-Mobile just announced a $10-a-month unlimited calling plan for its growing fixed-line effort, according to a new RCR Wireless News report.

The new service, Talk Forever Home Phone, offers unlimited local and domestic long distance calls, the report said. The service is available in Dallas and Seattle to "T-Mobile wireless users with single-line plans of $40 or higher or family plans of $50 or higher."

To use the service, Talk Forever Home Phone subscribers will also have to buy a $50 router, the article said, and that "the carrier is suggesting -- but not demanding -- that Talk Forever users purchase a $60 VTech phone at T-Mobile retail outlets."

Typically, the carriers don't want to touch Internet calling plans, because they threaten the use of regular cellular voice minutes and won't be able to make as much money off of them. There have been technical problems with some of them too, at least on cell phones if not in the home. At any rate, T-Mobile has been doing an end run around the other three major carriers for a while, making up for the company's lack of a 3G network with various T-Mobile Hotspot and other WiFi-related tie-ins such as this.

MocoNews is reporting that Chicago-based U.S. Cellular, which has a customer base of six million customers in 26 states and is the country's sixth largest carrier, is now offering a $99-per month flat-rate call plan, following the mob rush from the major carriers earlier in the week.

U.S. Cellular's plan is supposedly only for a "limited time," though we doubt that in the face of competitive pressure. The MocoNews report also said that Cellular South, a network that serves Memphis, Mississippi, and coastal areas of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, has been offering a $79 plan since last October, but apparently no one noticed.

MediaPost reports that the recent move toward unlimited, flat-rate voice plans by three of the major U.S. wireless carriers this week could help spur the growth of mobile media and advertising, according to both industry analysts and mobile marketing executives.

They said that the unlimited $100 voice plans announced in succession by Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile could lead to more usage, and as a step toward all-you-can-eat offers that will eventually include data services—which would be a huge improvement, if it came to pass. That would help turn the cell phone into a "more ad-friendly platform as more people download content, send text messages and surf the mobile Web," the report said.

"I think this will motivate some number of people who don't already have them to get data plans, and bring the overall cost of mobile plans down," said Greg Sterling, senior analyst for Local Mobile Search, a unit of Opus Research, in the article. "[The new plans would] also encourage more people to forgo their land lines in favor of cell phones instead of paying for both. The savings could be used to add a data plan," he said.